Monday, July 11, 2011

The Things We Leave Behind

I was reading Weaver of Grass's blog yesterday where she was talking about how our past dies with us and what will happen to the things we leave behind.  My husband and I were just talking about this and have always said that our daughter will probably call in Goodwill and have them cart everything off.  She, who is into all things Japanese,  doesn't care for the antiques we've collected through the years and says that she'll probably just sell it all on ebay.  Sort of sad, I hope she'll keep some things though they're not her style.

From her Great Grandmother Maria Antonia Mac would like her to keep a turtle shell she brought from Spain, it had belonged to her Grandmother and was said to keep you safe in thunderstorms which she was terrified of.  Mac says he can remember being about 4 years old and fascinated with it.








From her Grandma Patty I hope she keeps her school desk that Patty rescued from her elementary school when it was being torn down.  Patty had to leave school at 13 to go to work full-time and it broke her heart, so I'm hoping April will keep the desk.



















From me I'd like her to keep a little statue of a fairy riding a snail that Mac gave me for Christmas one year.  It's probably not very valuable but it is "so" me.    I've had a life-long fascination with fairies and and life-long fear of snails.















Mac would like  her to keep his flamenco guitar.  He had his Father's electric guitar for years but finally passed it on to a nephew because he didn't play guitar.  Then about 5 years ago he taught himself to play and then regretted giving up his Father's guitar.  So he'd like her to keep his.


5 comments:

  1. Not having children all our 'things' will just be chucked I dare say, so sad but nieces and nephews and god children don't want other's peoples memories.
    xxx

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  2. Retirement and this recent move across the country, worldly goods in tow,has caused me to think seriously of what I'll one day be leaving behind. Our daughter doesn't share exactly the same decorating/collecting tastes, but there is some overlap--and she appreciates the value of many of the things I have salvaged from my late mother's family home. I've recently given her some things to display in her home--things which I like, but have little room for here. They may as well be where they can be enjoyed. My son and his lady have too small a house at present to want more belongings, but there are pieces of family furniture which I want him to have --eventually.
    A cousin and I share [long-distance] a passion for genalogy and wonder: who will want the notebooks full of painstakingly collected data?

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  3. My mum's house is full of stuff - pretty, but copious - that we'll need to dispose of when she moves in with us. There's not room for it all in our, fairly stuff-filled, house.

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  4. I think that when you actually lose your parents your attitude to their belongings changes however much you didn't share their taste during their lives. Certain things hold memories and are a final link to the mum and dad that you are never going to see again. I have the crystal dish that my gran always made trifle in at Christmas and her desk which I was allowed to open occasionally to look at the old Christmas cards she kept in there. My parents drop leaf dining table where all special family meals were eaten is in my living room now and the china cabinet which I remember my dad buying at the auction room when I was about 10 years old. There are other small things too that bring back happy memories of my choldhood. None have great monetary value but the memories they hold are priceless.

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  5. Rowan, I hope she feels that way when we're gone, and I hope some of our things do bring back memories for her.

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