About 20 years ago, Tina and I started our business selling on eBay. This was back before we conducted our own online auctions, or in-person auctions or blended auctions with both live and on-line bidding, or even estate sales. Back then we sold on eBay. This was back in in the 1998-1999 timeframe.
We had somehow picked up what the seller told us was a light from a St. Louis Bordello. When we sold it on eBay that’s exactly how we marketed it. We said something like “Lovely Victorian Light From a St. Louis Whore House”
Our winning bidders were a husband and wife from a tiny town in New Mexico called Lemitar (population of 330 in 2019, I don’t know what it was back then). They didn’t care about the lights past, they just liked it. The couple’s names were Sheila and Ed.
We were not very fast shippers that sale, due to Tina’s mom having COPD, and us having to run over to her house all the time. We forgot about shipping the light. When Tina sent Sheila an email to apologize for our lack-o-shipping Sheila was very kind and said that she understood, as she and Ed were dealing with Ed’s mother who was having health issues as well.
Sheila and Tina became email pen pals. I would often hear Tina laughing loudly from the room with the computer in it, and I would say, “did Sheila email again?” It started with Sheila saying something funny about our packing job and how well the lamp was packed. I don’t remember the exact comment but it was something like “holy cow, you guys really packed the heck out of this thing. I think you could have kicked it out a plane as you flew over our farm and it would have just bounced a couple of times but not broken”
Back then we were just getting started and we did not have much money for anything, let alone bubble wrap, and I did all of our packing. I would use whatever bubble wrap I could afford or save, packing paper, shredded documents, whatever I could find that would work. In this case I double boxed, the lamp and In one layer I used a country blue pillow from our couch that had lost a button. It was clean, but simi-buttonless. It still looked fine from one side but Tina wanted me to get rid of it and I hate to waste things. So here was the lamp, wrapped in what we called “expensive bubbles”, then a big layer of shredded paper and then packing paper, all in the inner box. This box was put into a larger box, with a blue pillow on the bottom and foam pieces on the sides and top, and around the blue pillow.
In one of Sheila’s letters she thanked Tina for the beautiful pillow we had sent her. Tina replied that we were just using the pillow for packing. Tina and I laughed about that one a lot.
Sheila called to tell us that her father (a retired B-52 pilot) was going to be in Missouri for an Air Force reunion in Branson, Missouri. She was going to take him there and wanted to know if we would like to come down and meet in the real world. We said sure and drove the 8 hour round trip to go meet her. We hit it off real well, and before the visit was over she invited us to visit her and her husband in Lemitar. We agreed to drive out and visit them. That Summer we did just that. We packed up our stuff, took our 12 year old daughter and drove the Southern route through North Texas to New Mexico.
Sheila and Ed live in a lush valley on a small alfalfa farm surrounded by huge chili farms, surrounded by lots and lots of desert. When we went to visit them we left a note to our son on the counter, it said “If we never come back, start looking for our bodies here” and had Sheila and Ed’s address. I had visions of a show on A&E where the screen would show a shot of a chili farm with thousands of sulfur butterflies fluttering about. The voiceover would say “The tiny farming community of Lemitar, New Mexico” The shot would swing to Ed and Sheila’s farm. The voice would say “Chili peppers, alfalfa, and MURDER!” Then they would go on to tell the story of how this nieve couple took their daughter to visit complete strangers in New Mexico, and got killed and buried in the garden.
When we first came onto their property they had a sign that said “Please drive carefully, young dogs, old dogs, many stupid dogs” and I thought, maybe they won’t bury us in the garden, they will feed us to the dogs. When they asked us what we wanted to do, I said “I know that you guys like collecting rocks and rockhounding, so why don’t we go out into the backcountry and do some rock hounding? So our first day there we climbed into their jeep and bounced and bounced way back into the middle of nowhere and took a walk further into the boonies to look for rocks. As were walking down a gravel “road” Tina, and I were on the left side with Sheila on our right, then Ed, and Ali our daughter. After a little while walking Ali, fell back and drifted back over to our side. She got real close to Tina and whispered to her “mom he has a gun”. Ed had a very large .357 revolver with a long barrel in a holster on his right hip. Tina said back to Ali “There are mountain lions, bears, and rattle snakes out here, it’s ok, it’s good that he has a gun.
I am happy to report what you have no doubt figured out, they didn’t kill us. We did get some real cool rocks, and had a great visit. We went on to visit Native American ruins, Acoma Pueblo, and even got to ride on the tractor when Ed cut the alfalfa. It was the beginning of a great long term friendship. We have now gone to visit Sheila and Ed in Colorado, and New Mexico, they have been to visit us here in Hazelwood, MO. Several times and even came to Ali’s graduation and our son Rob and Lisa’s wedding, and it all started because we sold them a whore house light in an auction.
By the way, Ed is wearing my Army hat, he is a Navy guy, but that is another story.
Update
I got a call from Ed on the day before Mother’s Day that Sheila was not well and was on hospice care, and that the doctors didn’t give her long to live. Tina called Ed the next day to tell Sheila that she loved her and that we were praying for her. Ed told Tina that Sheila had died that morning, on Mother’s Day.
Our hearts are broken. Ed loved Sheila like few people we have ever met loved their spouse. He even had a bronze statue made of her. When Sheila was younger she was a belly dancer. The pictures above were taken the last time we saw Sheila and Ed in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
We love you Ed and Sheila.
