Dishing

Stuff from my parents' old house continues to affect my life. Of all the junk and valuables in that place, which we emptied out about 3 years ago, when my dad had a stroke, and sold, only the good china, bone china from England, and my great-uncle Isaac's painting of my grandfather are left. The painting has been at my friend Linda's house in Philadelphia since we cleaned out the house (or actually, took what we could and paid others to take the rest away so we could sell).
The dishes went with my friend Amy, whom you will or might remember from a blog entry a few months ago. Amy is now moving away from the small town where the horrible people torment her and her family to another, better place, I hope. However, she does not want to take the dishes with her. This is partly because the house was full of vermin, and some traveled along with us in boxes and other items. To this day, we are still plagued with some sort of mite that is extremely small, not visible with the naked eye, and so no insect control service will spray for it.
Amy's husband is a licensed pest control person, so they sprayed a number of times and finally got rid of it in the rest of the house, but she suspects that the bugs are still in the box of dishes, and does not want them in her new house.
I was not at all sentimental about anything from the house. I had a miserable childhood there, and wanted only to put the whole thing behind me. In fact, I had nightmares for years and years about having to deal with it, and begged my father in the years leading up to his stroke to sell. I even found a service that would help him pack up and sell things from the house, so he could move either out here or to an assisted living place in Philly.
He refused to go, so I was stuck with a horrible, nightmarish task, in a house full of two refridgerators full of rotting food, rats, roaches, etc. In addition, he buried envelopes full of cash all over, and we had to find them. We never found my grandmother's diamonds or other valuables.
But the one thing I wanted, besides the painting and the death mask of my grandfather, was the dishes. I did have wonderful memories of family holidays together using those dishes. And they are lovely. If I ever got them here, they would be the nicest things I owned.
A few months ago, Amy contacted me and told me she would leave them at the house if I didn't send someone to get them. We have become estranged since the episode with the bugs that also infested her house. She and her husband, like me, happen to be allergic to them. Most people aren't. However, she seems sympathetic about my plight.
Linda has said she will go get them, but eventually I need to relieve her of them and of the painting. I have no idea how to go about this. The house and my past just won't let go.