My husband`s sister in law passed away last year, she wasn`t that old, just in her early 70`s but had been more or less housebound due to crippling arthritis. Her husband still worked part time and was also a keen crown green bowler and on the committee of his local club so he was frequently out of the house.
Anyway when she passed away he went through her things and found so much stuff he didn`t even realise she`d bought, all of it from QVC, Ideal World and jewellery channels. It seems she spent most of her waking hours in front of the TV.
They had no children of their own so he passed her jewellery to my husband and asked him to share it out between his daughter and grand daughters. It fell to me to divvy it up and oh my goodness what a lot of stuff there was, a lot of it obviously unworn and also much of it not even that nice. It also took her husband several trips to charity shops with unworn clothes, unused bags, unlit candles and so on. He admitted he never checked on their finances, both their pensions and other benefits were going directly into their account , bills always seemed to be paid and he said he had no idea just how much money she`d been spending and nearly all of it during the last 3 years of her life when her arthritis had keep her more or less cooped in the house. He said he felt guilty but she didn`t drive and even if he asked her did she want to go anywhere, her answer was usually no and she``d send him off and told him she was quite happy at home.
It made me wonder just how many people seem to fill their lives with shopping, whether from the TV, the internet or in real shops. Is it loneliness, boredom, greed, addiction or what ?
