As I have been going thru things at my parents house, I often wonder, are they laughing at me having to go thru all of this? I imagine there are probably time when they look down and just laugh tears of joy at some of the things I’m finding. It probably brings back a lot of memories for them, seeing things they forgot they had or never knew they had! Some of the stuff I’m throwing away they are surely siting there thinking “glad it’s not me that has to do that”. I know my folks, some of this stuff they left for a reason and I see why now. It was easier not to deal with it at all then have to decide what to do with it. I sure wish they had dealt with it more because some of this I’m still not sure what to do with it. I question some of the items that I’m pitching but I really try to look at it objectively to see if it had any meaning or is useful to anyone. I think I’ve done pretty good at distinguishing between the two. I still find a treasure now and then in all this stuff. Part of me gets angry because I don’t know the history behind it and part of me feels elated knowing that it obviously has some kind of meaning for them to have saved it all this time. Most of these items appear to go back to my dad’s younger days growing up and before. It looks at though some of these items were saved for him and meant to hand down to his kids.
I am saving some to give to my own two kids. Some I ask them if they want now but there are some I just want to tuck aside and save for a later date to surprise them. I sure wish I knew more of the stories behind a lot of these treasures. I imagine at one point they brought joy to the owner, whoever it may have been. Neither one of my grandma’s talked a whole lot about their parents so I didn’t know much about them…….until now. I am discovering a generation of my family that I wish I had asked more about or dug a little deeper into before now. When my one grandma came down with alzheimer’s she of course forgot everything in the present and remembered all of the past stuff which worked out great. She would tell stories of her parents and especially her dad who she was extremely close with. He taught her to cook and take care of things around their place. They raised 7 children on very little but made it work. He even taught himself how to drive, which had me cracking up over those stores. He sounds like a very caring, compassionate person. On Sunday’s after church they couldn’t eat the afternoon meal until they found a family who didn’t have as much to share their meal with. That was something he insisted on. Back in those days they didn’t have a lot to begin with but he still insisted that be done. What a wonderful person he must have been. My other grandma’s parents I have derived were hard workers also. They worked a farm, raised 9 children and were always there for each other. They came from Germany, met here and married. They spoke German in their home but insisted the children speak english in school. They knew how fortunate they were to be here and took every opportunity available. My great grandpa even applied to become a us citizen and was granted citizenship shortly before he passed away. How amazing that must have been!!
I’m finding how fortunate I am to come from the family I do. Both sides of my family were hard workers, they didn’t sit around and wait for something to be handed to them, they believed in God and attended church without fail every Sunday, they embraced any and all education they could get to better themselves. They did all this for their family and those coming after them. They have instilled those values in generations of us to come.
Please don’t miss a moment to discuss your heritage and family with anyone in your family. I promise you’ll be thankful you did down the road. you won’t have to wonder what something means or who someone was, start the discussion and never be afraid to bring it up, it could spark a wonderful memory for the one you are talking with!