A Family Heirloom

I am a true "Mail" aficionada~~I watch eagerly for the mailman every day and thoroughly enjoy the tradition of going through the mail. 

Of course since the invention of e~mail the fine art of letter writing has taken a sad turn for the worse.  Still, every now and then I open our mail box and find something special.

Today was one such day:

My Aunt Diane was doing some closet cleaning and came across this Vintage Beauty!  She wore it to a formal in 1964/65. . .

It is so beautiful I, of course, cried! 

Not only for it's beauty & the place it holds in our family's history (especially for my Aunt!) but also because I would venture to guess that this is the beautiful work of my grandmother & when I opened it I had that sudden deep pain of longing for her and the past. . .that pang of homesickness that is like no other feeling~~it rises up from a place so deep, so private, so personal  that when it surfaces one is forced to submit and let it ride it's slow, gnawing course through your soul.  Sometimes it visits for just a moment, at other times it chooses to stay awake and linger and force us to think back and to remember~~to smile, to weep, to long for, to wish, to dream. . .I think today it will be here for quite awhile.  *

It is so important, in this "throw away" society (which, by the way is mainly an American motto) that we save some of our past.  That we have something beautiful to pass on to our children & grandchildren.  If you have something from your grandmother, or great grandmother, resist the pressure to "modernize", to "update" & that biggest farce of all:  that newer is better.  The craftsmanship, the quality, the antiquity of such heirlooms can NEVER be replaced.  They are all we have when those we loved have gone. . .

Thank you, Auntie Di, for your gift. .  .

This is a picture of my grandparents, Naomia & Axel. . .I believe they were at a wedding when this photograph was taken.  It hangs on the side of my kitchen cupboard at the sink so I can see her everyday. . .

*My weepy, sensitive, emotional frame of mind may be due to the fact that I watched "PERSUASION" twice last night~~yes, I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. . .imagine lovers waiting all that time and ending up with each other?  Does such patient devotion still exist in this immediate~gratification~crazed world we live in??  Did you see it?  What did you think? 

Michelle