The Power of Donation
By Jean Marie Herron
As a professional organizer the hardest time I have dealing with people is when they need to let go of their prized possessions. This really hit me this past year when my mother had a stroke. She was an avid horseback rider and treated her two horses as family members.
After the shock of the unexpected phone call telling me about the stroke, I knew my skills were about to be tested. After getting my family covered in Mahwah, I flew to Florida to help my mom. She had become paralyzed on her whole left side but the prognosis for recovery was good although no one could say just how much she would truly be able to do again.
As she settled into rehab all she and her boyfriend (of 15 years) could talk about was how this crisis was going to affect their horseback riding. They owned two Quarter horses named Rascal and Squire and those two beautiful creatures were the love of my mother’s life. While they wintered in Tarpon Springs the horses were stabled in Warwick, New York.
Soon she regained her speech and movement in her left leg and left arm. Weeks went by and she started to walk and hold items in her hand. But as the months went by the recovery slowed down to the point where she walks slowly with a cane and can’t really do very much with her left arm. We’re not even sure if she’ll be driving again. At 65 years old this is crushing.
What was hardest for her to accept was the fact that riding her horse was becoming a pipedream and even if she could stay mounted on Squire the chance that she would fall was a serious threat. Because of her medications and physical disabilities the reality of the situation begged the question, “When you love something so much, what do you do with it when you know you cannot keep it?” In her heart she knew they needed to give up the horses but to whom? They didn’t want to sell Squire and Rascal. They wanted them to have a loving home where someone would take great care of them and enjoy them immensely.
I had remembered missing a MRCC Business Card Exchange at Pony Power, which I had wanted to attend. I knew of the farm’s reputation for horseback riding lessons for children and adults with disabilities. Maybe they would be happy to adopt these horses?
After contacting Dana Spett and getting the ball rolling on behalf of my mother it all worked out beautifully. When my mom returned to Jersey the papers were signed, the horse trailer was loaded from Warwick to Mahwah and Rascal and Squire had a new home. My mom said they are Pony Power’s lead horses for lessons.
The horses are thriving and most of all my mother’s heart was not completely broken. She knows they have been placed in a loving environment and treated better than she would have had the opportunity to give them. Through one persons life changing disability has come a gift of turning their horses into service providers for individuals with special needs.
Sometimes I have to search for just the right place or person to for my clients to “let go” of things they are emotionally attached to. It does all of us good to think about where our possessions can go when we can’t take care of them or don’t want them anymore. In my mother’s case God had closed a door but opened a window for her. She can even visit the horses at Pony Power to see the smiles on the children’s faces as they ride what were once her horses.
Donations are sometimes thought of as things that do not have a use but what they really are is a chance for a rebirth to someone new.
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At POSSE Partners, LLC (Professional Organizing Solutions Serving Everyone) we cater to homeowners who want one-on-one help with their organizing endeavors whether it's their space, papers or time. Besides transferring these organizing skills to our clients, we also hold organizing classes called Clutter Corrals, have a monthly forum for supporting each other called POSSE's Pen and we also give organizing presentations as well. To learn more about the author and owner, Jean Marie Herron, and sign up for her free newsletter go to www.POSSEPartnersLLC.com.
