Lovely To Have

I had forgotten until I got Kat’s email.

When she and her twin sister, Stephanie, were quite young, they lived relatively near the little White House on the corner and spent many afternoons with their Grandfather and me. One of their favorite pastimes was carefully pursuing my collection of jewelry, and the two little girls spent hours quietly looking at each item.

I promised when they were older they could each have something from the antique wooden chest for their own. Before long their family moved away, and I forgot the idle commitment.

Years later during one of their annual Christmas visits, both immediately reminded me that I had promised each of them one piece from the weathered wooden chest. Much of what I had collected fell into the costume category, and I assured the girls they were both welcome to whatever items they selected.

This time it didn’t take quite as long for them to decide, and I vaguely recall giving them violet gauze bags for their choices. That was over ten years ago.

Last night I received an email including a picture along with a question, “Were these your Mom’s?” And with those words a Pandora’s box of memories opened.

The earrings Kat now owns are multi-colored Christmas trees, and Mom had given them to me the year my youngest son, her Dad, was born. I remember opening the beautiful gift and thinking how appropriate they would have been for either Mom, herself, or my younger sister. I was never as colorful as either one, nor as dramatic. I believe, and hope, I hid my disappointment about the lovely gift.

I just felt the lovely earrings should be worn by a woman as vibrant as the colored stones, and I realized I definitely didn’t fall into that category.

However, I thanked Mom with a hug, and wore them the rest of the afternoon. The moment she boarded the LIRR for her return to Manhattan, I carefully put them into the wooden chest and promptly forgot about them until the day her young Great granddaughter discovered them. So many years had gone by in that interim.

However, even then I still didn’t fall into the description of colorful or dramatic and I had no qualms about allowing Katherine to choose them as her gift. That was a long, long time ago. In the interim, much of life changed for all the family. Both Matriarchs had left decades earlier for their eternal reward. Consequently, none of their great grandchildren ever met either lady.

No longer did anyone ask to open the wooden chest and pursue my collection of chains and stones and isolated items. I rarely opened it myself once I found myself alone after the one who had shared my life and love departed this world.

Then yesterday an email arrived with just the one sentence and a picture.

It simply asked,

“Were they your Mom’s?”

I tried to fit everything I knew into an email and realized it was too complex describing a woman who would fit quite well into this century. strong, vibrant, dramatic and yes beautiful, exactly like the earrings glittering on my Ipad, That's when I suggested that my daughter, who had known her Grandmother quite well, would describe her far better than I.

The interesting thing about all this is that the pro active email opened a dialogue of memories between the Fabulous Four and resurrected a memory of an interesting woman who will always be remembered, and not just for a pair of earrings. Despite the 30 years since she left our earth, her memory remains as vibrant, colorful and dramatic as the Christmas gift of long ago. Their train of loving memories.returned her briefly to our world. It was quite lovely just like the earrings and hopefully introduced her to a Great Granddaughter.