When my husband’s mother moved from her apartment into a nursing home, it was up to us to clear out her place. We brought home a few furniture pieces and boxes and boxes of dishes and collectables. We still have a few of the furniture pieces, a couple of chairs, book cases, end tables. Some pieces were taken by any children who were setting up housekeeping at the time. It is Bernie’s family that blessed us with the dishes that we continue to use for holidays. There are also knickknacks that we kept and sit out on shelves around the house. Many items we just packed away for sentimental reason. The rest went into a garage sale.
I can still recall the well-dressed woman who came to our sale and scooped up a bunch of the little figurines that, as far as I was concerned, were just dust collectors. After paying for the items, around 10 cents each, the woman handed me her card. She was an antique dealer. “Call me if you get more,” she said. Ugh.
Clearly we will be leaving this house at some point. What will become of all the items we have saved over the years? For the most part, it isn’t important, but I can imagine a grandchild some day wishing to have a keepsake that reminds them of us or speaks of their ancestry. Since our grandkids are starting to marry we decided to give each of them one of these treasured items as part of their wedding gift. Along with each item, we write a note describing its origin.
Looking through the boxes for an item to give the most recent grandchild to marry, we came across a tall glass vase that neither Bernie or I can recall seeing before. Should we not give it because we can’t think of a story to tell? Bernie suggested looking the vase up on line since there is an identification on the bottom of the vase. I did so this morning. While I didn’t find this particular vase, I found other items by the same manufacturer that were produced around the 1940’s the right time for his parents to have acquired the vase. The prices ranged around $500 to $1000. Well, go figure!
We may not be able to tell a story to tuck into the package when we send our granddaughter the gift, but I think it would be a good idea to suggest she not ever put it in a garage sale.