💙My Nana, like me...LOVED the lake. We spent many hours in Lake St. George swimming together. Blue was her color. The water reflected her sparkly blue eyes and if she went shopping for a new dress it was most often blue. Even her birthstone was aquamarine! The evening after my grandson came home from the hospital I found out my Nana and dear friend was gone. My heart was broken. It was sudden due to a fall and I had been somewhat buffered from the reality of her situation because I was in Austin with my daughter who was then now 10 days over due. Two hours after our grandson Warren came home from the hospital we got the call. That joy of his awaited arrival mixed with devastating and somewhat unexpected loss was intense. That was compounded by reality that my three week stay at my daughters was now almost over, just as my sweet new grandson arrived. I had one day to snuggle Warren...say goodbye to Aiden and Gray...hug my daughter who was now at the moment she could really use a mom and go home to help support the family in the loss of our beloved matriarch.
It's just life...the stuff we all have to cope with. The reality of loving.
My Nana had 7 girls. My mother was the oldest, and the youngest was only a year older than my older sister. Actually a year to the day. When my Mom had three girls, (and later a very welcomed boy)...we three girls become a continuation of that sisterhood. My sweet Aunt Charlotte, the next to the youngest of Mom's sisters passed at 27 and my Nana never got over that loss. It was my intention to gift my wonderful Mom and aunts something to hold as we celebrated the life of their Mom-Alice, and that's where these six little memorial pendants with a wisp of hair come in. They had to be blue... like water...like her eyes...like her birthstone...like her favorite dresses. So, I created them with that in mind.
What makes a keepsake so powerful? Because it gives us a tangible connection to, and can unlock memories of moments that can now only be found there. Making memories and keeping keepsakes is not new...its old... and probably ancient. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can be as simple as a small piece of special driftwood from a Maine beach collected with a visiting sister... A perfect circle broken in two. She kept half...I kept half.
I'm so thankful to work in the keepsake world at this point in my life...it rewarding and meaningful and I love it. It's a perfect fit for me. But someday when I retire from creating keepsakes I'll still be collecting bits of beach sand and special rocks and love notes in my treasure box.
I hope you have a treasure box, too.
🦋💙🦋
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