Heirloom

Week 8 of Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt is Heirloom.

On February 11, 2010, I lost my grandmother, Phyllis Ann Bartley Lewis Gieseke. Her health had been failing for the previous few years and we knew the end was coming but losing her was still one of the hardest things I've been through in my life.

At the funeral a couple days later, my uncle handed me an envelope with my name on it and said my grandma wanted me to have what was inside. Inside was my grandma's wedding rings. My grandma had horrible arthritis for years so she melted down her wedding band from her first marriage to my grandpa, Roger, and her band from her second marriage to my grandpa Stan. I cried and cried but it meant so much to me to have her rings.

Growing up I loved my grandma and grandpa's oak bedroom furniture. We got to go help clean out her room at the nursing home, including her bedroom furniture. I also took the tray she always had sitting on her dresser with her hand mirror and perfume bottles. I have it set up the same way in my bedroom, with her reading glasses as well.

I also received an old candy dish that sat on her couch side table in her living room my entire life. Before my grandma, it belonged to her mother.

I was fortunate to have had my grandma in my life for almost 40 years. I have so many memories. It's nice to have these things to remind me of her as well.