I have been busy packing up two big cabinets in my dining room and living room, getting ready for the painters to come the beginning of August. This is where I store my family treasures. I keep them safe and rarely open the doors, they are in shaded rooms that don't get much use or light. I like to keep them safe so they can be passed down to future generations. My Mother's wedding china is in one case with two bowls that were my Grandmother's. My Mother never liked the china, I have a feeling my grandmother picked it out for her.
In one side of the big cabinet is where my grandmother's hurricane lamp lives, along with the violin my Dad learned to play on when he was a boy. There are tools from his father, and dice his mother used to use, and the oldest ornament that used to hang on his tree when he was a boy, and that hung on mine when I was little. There are china pieces from my husband's family belonging to his grandmother and great grandmother, and an autograph book from his great, great grandfather.
There is a small wooden chair carved for my grandmother, To Carrie by Marion, and a picture of her with her older sister and brother. There is also a smiling photo of my Dad's mother, who I always think of as not feeling well because that is what I was told she was like when I was a little girl. Although I have since learned that she was a happy woman who had my father later in life when she was not feeling her best. There is a letter to my grandparents from my father when he was in Burma in WWII, and a letter from my grandfather back to him. My Dad wrote he just wished this darn war would end, it broke my heart because he was a gentle man who never got over the horrors of the war he fought in.
There is a gorgeous photo of my Grandmother's sister Rhoda, she died in the pandemic of 1918, she was just 16 years old. I have her porcelain doll Dina if you remember that post from years ago. My grandmother left nursing school to come home and take care of her family during the pandemic, she lost two sisters within a few days of each other and her grandmother as well. After it was over she returned to nursing school and became a nurse, not an easy task in those days long ago.
In the top photo you can see wee little hands that were cast in plaster, those are my older boys when they were young. There is also a wonderful chocolate service that was my great grandmothers on my Mother's side, and a photo of her stern looking face right in front of it.
There is still more in this house, my grandmothers music stand and sewing box, my dad's fathers wooden golf clubs. These all mean the world to me but I fear having boys it won't much matter to them. As I packed things away in containers I wondered what will happen to all of these treasures when I pack up and leave this house, will anyone want all of this history?
Still I know that the greatest treasure of all is my family and this little boy in new pajamas. His health and his progress are amazing treasures. This week we went for his routine rapid MRI and his last visit to see his neurosurgeon who saved his life twice when he was just six weeks old. I thanked her again for saving him, just like I always do. She is retiring after such an amazing career, saving lives and training others to save them as well. I wished her the best and thanked her for all she has done for all the children she has seen over her career, especially this amazing boy who was born dead, 13 weeks early, with complication after complication. She is the reason I am able to have him in my life and hold him close like the sassy treasure he is.
And just to make you laugh I will leave you with this treasure. This came home from camp with Little Buddy yesterday, it made me laugh out loud! Look at those wonky eyes!
Have a wonderful weekend my friends, stay smart and safe as the pandemic is not over yet.
