Late
yesterday evening her breathing became ragged and she started leaking ice
water. We gathered the softening food
from her freezer and stashed it in our big upright freezer in the
basement.
This morning we put the rest of the food in an ice chest with ice
from the big freezer, said our goodbyes---
---and pulled the plug. Old
Sandy had been with us through big parties and weddings.
She’d patiently cared for our lettuce and leftovers while humming
quietly along for a couple of decades.
She couldn’t have chosen a better time to go. I had planned to clean the spilled syrup,
soggy lettuce and fuzzy unidentifiable food objects off her racks this
week. We are expecting kids, spouses and
grandkids to rock the place on Halloween and then an even bigger gathering is
planned for Thanksgiving Weekend.
Like Sipsey told Idgie when Ruth breathed her last, “She was a
lady and a lady always knows when to leave.”
Our next task was to find a replacement before the Major Appliance
Virus which caused Sandy’s demise spread to the dishwasher or the dryer. In fact we didn’t even speak of the incident
in the car for fear of an outbreak.
We went to visit our neighbor who, over the years, has given us great deals on a water heater, washer, dryer, and recently sold us a wonderful stainless steel
gas range with black trim.
She had several refrigerators in stock the same size as our old
one. We said no to the one that was toilet white. There was a floor model waiting for a
replacement handle that had been broken in shipping. It was in our price range but it was black.
For another three hundred dollars we could have it in stainless. If we wanted to spend even more money we could
have a fridge big as a walk-in with ice maker, filtered water dispenser in the
door and a freezer big enough to stash a body.
We made our choice and, almost before we could get home to clean up
the gunk and leaked body fluids, two buff guys arrived, picked up Sandy and
carried her to their truck.
Then just as skillfully they carried our new refrigerator up the
steps—
--and into our kitchen.
The guys put on the unbroken handle and promised they’d have a
replacement for the broken freezer door handle delivered in a couple of
days. The new fridge looked good next to
our black trimmed stove and black dish washer.
We plugged it in, filled it with food and stuck the photos of our kids
on the door with magnets, something we couldn’t have done with a stainless
fridge.
I think we’ll call him Darth.
