If you move about 2/3 of the way down this page, you'll see my Christmas greeting and gift offered to all here at Christmas 2002 which you may want to check out before you read this. Later I offered the same gift on other forums: "re-gifting", don't they call it? Also, as there was 0 cost to me except for some time and finger waving over the keyboard, how do you like that for chintzy?

I've recently had an experience that might be a helpful addition to my suggestion that you build a profile of everyone you've known, including contact info.

My ex-wife passed away last year and my daughter, her executor, has been assembling and disposing of her assets.

She had a hobby of making miniatures, sort of like more complicated doll houses, etc. with more detail that would be found in doll houses, as these are treated with care.

She had quite a large collection, with quite a large amount of supplies.

Our son and daughter attended a regional gathering of miniatures' enthusiasts last spring, where they had a long table displaying their mother's goods. They were able to sell some, but only a portion of the total supply. They said, after having visited a local store specializing in miniatures, that they thought their Mom had more than the store lady had. One item was a pretty well wall-free house, about four feet high, four feet long and three feet wide. Sitting on a platform that could be pulled out from a wall and turned 180.

When their home for a number of years was sold, rather a traumatic experience in itself, quite a substantial quantity of the miniatures' supplies were still there.

I think that most of them were put out with the trash, possibly some sent to Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. (but I doubt that they would have much use for them).

I thought that, had their Mom followed my Christmas suggestion (which had not been made to her) and made a list of all of her contacts in the miniatures hobby situation, especially if many of them had email address, our "kids" ("kids" - aged 40?) could have sent around a rough estimate of what was available, offering more inclusive list later for anyone interested, thus having a better possibility of finding a home for a much larger portion of their Mom's supply. While this almost certainly would have increased the amount that they were able to realize from that portion of their Mom's estate, even after allowing for postage costs (which shouldn't be too large, for miniatures) it could well have meant that much less valuable material would have been disposed of as junk.

Also, their Mom, who'd had a larger motor home for upwards of 15 years, recently traded it for a smaller one, which is currently almost new - she'd only used it a few (couple of?) times prior to her terminal illness.

She used to love to travel in it, to nearby areas while she was working, and further afield after her (early) retirement about ten years prior to her death.

She, a U.S. citizen, used to spend three winter months travelling between FL and TX, even over to AZ when her/our daughter was there.

She had built a large network of friends in the RV system.

Currently the young ones are having a difficult time finding a buyer for the motor home - a fairly substantial investment. They've advertised in local newspaper, "RV Trader" and other places, with little result.

Had she built a database of the various people that she'd met over the years with that interest, no doubt our offspring would have a substantial list of email addresses to which they could have sent notice that their Mom's motor home was available.

There's a possibility that one of those people might have been interested in making a new home for it.

I think that, had such a list been available, it might have been rather valuable in this situation.

Good wishes to all.

ole joyful