Today I asked my mom if she’d be okay with us selling her father’s 1960’s Wurlitzer organ, that has been sitting unused and neglected in my parents’ basement. Selling the organ is not new news, but the reality of selling it finally hit her when I told her this morning that we might have a prospective buyer.

I understand the sentimental ties to the organ. I feel them, too, even though I was a wee young lad when my grandfather died. I have no memory of him prior to his first stroke. But I also understand that, as life runs its course, all things come to an end; and all things pass on, move on, continue on – life continues as life dies.

And so, to me, the organ is better in the hands of another, as we say goodbye to something that was useful to us at one time, long ago, and brought our family such joy, but has now laid dormant for over a decade. We recognize that to give it to someone else means that the organ actually increases in value – not decreases – as others are allowed to make memories with it and it becomes a part of others’ lives.

Saying goodbye to an organ doesn’t mean saying goodbye to the memories created by it.