I am an antique dealer and attend alot of estate "tag sales" in my area. For those who have never been to one, these are usually operated by a tag sale company that organizes the household items for sale...cleaning and pricing each item...from valuable antiques to the usual household "stuff". About a year ago, I went to a house that was in an older, somewhat rundown part of town...lots of old houses that have seen a lot of time go by. The sale was being held to settle the estate of an elderly woman. The house was a craftsman style bungelow, quite tired looking, with old furniture and boxes of old dishes on the front porch. Inside, it looked like it hadn't seen a coat of paint in 50 years. Along with some other buyers, I wandered through the various rooms. The tag sale company hadn't moved things around much. Kitchen stuff was set about on tables and counters in the kitchen; tools and outdoor items were displayed in the garage. I went upstairs and browsed around in the small bedrooms, looking at dingy old linens and boxes of old magazines. I walked to the back bedroom, a tiny room with tan walls, grimy 30's style linoleum on the floor. Sun-rotted curtains hung at the windows. A narrow metal bed with an old ticking mattress was pushed against one wall. There was nothing else in the room, except for a small closet that contained about a half dozen well-worn men's suits. When I openned the closet door and saw those suits, I immediately felt an incredible sensation of great sadness. I felt that someone had been very lonely here. It was like whoever had worn those suits had hung them up long, long ago and thereafter had never again ventured very far from that room. I could feel the despair, the boredom, the isolation. I stood alone in the room for a while, trying to understand what was making me feel that way. None of the other buyers came in. I finally left the house without buying a thing. I wonder now if perhaps someone was an invalid in that room...perhaps for a long time. The estate sale was for the woman who had just died, but it was the room obviously once occupied by a man that really stopped me in my tracks. Funny thing, though, I felt bad about leaving. Someone had been so lonely there, I almost felt I should have stayed a while. It still makes me sad to think about it and I wonder if the house has been sold and if the new occupants will feel the same way. I've been to hundreds of estate sales, but I have never had anything affect me that way before.