This is today's question.
- Were there any special heirlooms passed to you?
- They could be photos, a family bible, furniture, something small but special to someone before you.
- What was it?
- Where is it?
- Who should it be passed to after you?
Sometimes after we are gone the next generation might not put as much value on something that might seem insignificant to them, but was something very special in your family from generations past. I recall a drawing done by my grandmother that was inadvertently thrown away because someone in my family didn't recognize who was in the drawing. We learned later that it was a pastel drawing of my grandfather that my father had saved for almost his whole life. It's gone now because it was thrown away. If you chronicle some of these important pieces now the next generation might understand better what is to be done with them and why you held on to them.
For me, I am the one in my family that got most of the memorabilia from my father when he passed. I got all fo the genealogy that he had researched. I got his mother's weaving loom, and lots of photos and letters from his brothers and parents from when he was young. All of these things to me are priceless. I have many that can fit in my binders in the pages with that person's information so that the next generation might understand who they were from and why they are important to our family history. But I think the most important piece that I have is a single silver dollar that is almost rubbed smooth on both sides. It was given to my father when he was 17 years old and he carried it in his pocket until the day he gave it to me when he was 90 years old. That one silver dollar means so much to me because when I was little and we would go out shopping he would let me wander (this was before this was unsafe to do) the store while he shopped for something else. When it was time to go he would jingle the coins in his pocket so that I could find him. The sound of the other coins hitting that one silver dollar is very special so I knew it was him. The funny thing is that when I told my husband this story he said that his father also carried a silver dollar in his pocket (which he now has) and he remembered coming home from being away at school and walking through the airport hearing that sound, he turned to look and his father had surprised him at the airport to pick him up. He hadn't planned on dong that. So he also remembers that unique sound. So while someone might not put a lot of merit on that one silver dollar, it really means the most to me and has a heritage story to go with it.
Here's the form to fill in for today's question.
