What's in Your Box of Memories? Here's What Mine Holds -- And What I Left Out
What keepsakes are you saving? What did you send to Goodwill?
Cleaning out my backpack for a trip, I took out all the non-essentials. Twenty-five crumpled napkins, a squashed breakfast bar, and my dad’s wedding ring, which was traveling around in a little pouch. I had forgotten that it was still tied in a paper towel, twisted together by the nurse who eased it off his finger.
Taking it out brought back the crisp fall day when the nurse said the end was coming. His hands were swelling, and the ring should come off while it was still possible. The aide couldn’t manage it, the nurse struggled, and finally the nurse manager eased it off, and tied it in the towel.
He always slept in it, so it was on his hand for over fifty years, coming off only for surgeries.
When I look in my box of treasures, I find other memories. The first tiny sweater my daughter picked out for herself. “We buy this?” she asked as a preschooler, pulling it off a hanger in the store. Her fashion sesnse continues to amaze me, and I ahve no idea where it came from.
For years, my younger brother and I traded a college sweatshirt back and forth – for a school neither of us attended. I got it out of the lost and found box in the hallway at the end of a semester. He had it at the time of his death, and my sister-in-law gave it back to me. Now my daughter has it, and hope she’s wrapped up in his courage and love.
Some things were hard to part with. My wedding dress, and my mom’s. The family china went to Goodwill when we moved, joining every other family’s heirloom dishes. I really regret getting rid of a black faux cashmere turtleneck that was looking worn. I thought it would be simple enough to replace, and I’ve never been able to.
Other things are emphatically out.
In my younger years, my then-boyfriend and I attended a wedding, where he spent the reception flirting with one of the bridesmaids. IN desperate sadness, I spent my time at the open bar. After too many gin and tonics, the bride put me to bed in the soft bed of the bridal suite. Embarrassing! I came home and threw my dress away on the way to brush my teeth, knowing I would never wear that reminder of humiliation again.
My treasures root me back with a person I love and whisk me back to a particular chapter of life. They restore certain moments of love. After a few moves from one state to another, the box is small now, and rich in the memories that come flooding back.
What’s in your box of memories? And what do you keep things in? Image above via pexels. My actual box is a plastic bin!
I have old letters from middle and high school boyfriends (some of them have Van Halen 4 ever scrawled on the bottom lol). My baby book and my daughter's baby book. various high school and vacation trinkets from over the years. wristbands from music festivals. Funeral bulletins from services of loved ones. They all fit in one bin tucked into a closet. I also have tea cups from one grandmother that we occasionally use (usually for tea parties with my grands) and the other grandmother's wedding crystal and silverware that sometimes is used. I appreciate them but don't feel too attached . . . if something breaks or gets lost, it's okay. At some point I stopped adding to the box. I don't think I have anything of grandchildren in there. it is a pre-middle age box of memories :)
Oh those keepsakes were everywhere, especially if they came from Hawaii. It was all about home and family, even though I don't have my own. I'm USING my mother's old silverware-why not? It's prettier and feels better in my hand. I'd use my China (set was started at Goodwill and completed on line-a reward for doing my taxes) but it can't be microwaved. What I kept-stuff for my kid, although he hasn't spoken to me. A quilts from my mother in law that she made before the wedding, my conversations with her were priceless. I can still hear her voice.