Mom's Things

I'm not a particularly sentimental person. I used to be, but I've lost so many precious things through the years that I've had to learn to be a little Zen about personal memorabilia and trinkets from the past.

Once you lose the family pictures, nothing seems very important.

Over the weekend, we went through everything in the garage. Some things hadn't been opened and gone through for nearly 10 years.

The peculiar feeling for me was finding what little was left of my mother's belongings. As some of you know, she came to live with us in the Autumn of 2000 following a stroke. Most of her things got left in Denver, but I packed her teacups and silver -- mostly things that had been passed down from her mother. Yesterday, I came across two crocheted afghans she didn't get to finish before her unexpected death in December, 2004. What do I do with those? They're small and can't be used for anything, but they were the last ones she worked on. I found pictures of her friends, people who have also passed. No one knows who they are, except Joel and me, so I bit the bullet and threw them away. Sad. I wonder how many of my favorite photos will be tossed because our kids won't know who they're of.

Here some things we found that belonged to both her and us (they enlarge when clicked):

Porcelain earrings that my mother's step-mother made, probably about 70 years ago.

A pillbox that belongs to Nettl.

My filigree pewter and marcasite shoe buckles now sit with a photo of Ville and me at Nettl's and my Holy Union service in 2001, and a silver box I've had for ages.

Have a great Monday, everyone!