The pain and pleasure of clearing a family home | Letters

Parting with possessions and a Swedish death clean can be cathartic, says Lorrie Marchington Re Anne Enright’s article on the agony of clearing the family home (‘Under the stuff I can’t throw out is the stuff my parents couldn’t throw out’, 26 October), I am now 76 and my husband died almost five years ago. Our house contains things from his family and my family. For a long time, I have hung on to them all – because of sentiment. The children do not want them, and who would want a 1945 contact lens or bottles from my great-grandfather, the drunken vet? Then there are valuable things: the grandfather clock from my husband’s family; the exquisite wool blanket and waistcoat (tatty and ripped) brought back from Afghanistan in the 1970s.