My
grandmother, my favorite person in the whole wide world, passed away on
Christmas Day 1999. Even after all this
time I still miss her every day. When my
parents and I were clearing out her home to get it ready to sell my mother
found this picnic basket on the top shelf of her closet. When she opened it it was tightly packed with
quite the assortment of items. She found
it odd but when she called me in to take a look at it I knew immediately that
basket had been packed for me.
On our last
visit before she died we had a conversation about all these funny little
memories we had shared through the years and as I looked inside the basket I
could see it was filled with mementos from those particular memories. It was amazing. But it was also bittersweet.
For years I
just could not open that basket without dissolving into tears. For one thing, everything inside it smelled
like her and her house and you know how powerful that can be. Scents trigger memories and every time I
tried to go through that basket I ended up having a good cry, then closing it
and putting it away until later.
Later kept
getting later and later and later.
Fifteen years later.
 |
| It is amazing to see how much she packed into this basket |
Time really
does heal all wounds and fortunately it has done that for me. Lately I've been going through the items in
this basket and truly enjoying them. And
now I'd like to share not only the items inside, but my plans for them and the
picnic basket too.
Because
there is so much to tell I'm going to break it up a bit so bear with me. I think it will be a fun adventure.
After 50 plus years the memories of my grandmothers are vivid. People really do live in our hearts.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness do they ever.
DeleteHow sweet that she packed that just for you. I'm looking forward to seeing what's inside. :o)
ReplyDeleteTania
All kinds of fun treasures. :)
DeleteWhat a great teaser to the unveiling! I can't wait for the post
ReplyDeleteIt will be fun, I promise.
DeleteWhat a treasure your grandmother left for you. She wanted you to relive those good times that you two shared long after she was gone. What a gift! My grandmother was also my special person and I have inherited many of her things. One of my favorites though is one of her cookbooks with splatters on the pages and notes in her own handwriting on some of the recipes saying whether she liked it or not. She told me on my last visit home, when I made dinner for her from one of the recipes in that same cookbook, that I would marry a man that I had just met before I came home to see her. Six months later, I ran into that wonderful man and started dating him...he is now my husband. Grandma never got a chance to meet him but she did tell my grandfather before she died that she could go now because she knew Jeff would love me and take care of me. This happened before Jeff and I even got engaged...Grandma knew!
ReplyDeleteWow Debbie! That is an amazing story. What a special bond you shared. My marriage advice from my grandma was "it is just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is a poor one." Ha, ha. She was a funny lady.
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