So, for the last couple of weeks, my grandpa was asking me to come look through my grandma’s stuff and take anything I wanted as mementos.

I put it off for a few days, because honestly going through my grandma’s stuff – mementos or not – was just too depressing to handle.

Finally, however, I put my big-girl panties on and drove over.

It was both worse and better than I thought it would be.

On the one hand, my grandma loved to collect things. Anything. Everything. If she thought she or anyone else in the family could use it, whether that would be now or twenty years from now, she would save it. Which meant that there was a lot of little things to look through.

My grandpa wanted me to take some of her clothes. Now, I love my grandma, dearly, but I can’t say that I would want to take any of her clothes. Because…grandma. You know? Weird.

One thing I do remember about my grandma, though, was her jewelry. She always loved having beautiful jewelry in an array of sparkling, shiny colors. So that’s where I spent most of my time. I wanted to have something that I remembered her wearing, something I could wear and remember her every time I saw it.

And I found this.

I have no idea if it’s real. But it’s beautiful, and I love it, and it’s so her. Purple was her favorite color, and in addition to this she had several other amethysty-type pieces. It fits perfectly on my ring finger and every time I look at it I remember her and her smile. I got a few other things too, like her sewing box which I remember digging through when I was a kid and sewing stuff for the first time. It was like a treasure box all on its own. I also found this:

Which, because I have this weird thing about disguising my name even though most of you already know it, is my name followed by the YEARS 1992-1994. Which does, in turn, mean that this is a bona-fide home video of yours truly during her younger years.

Truly terrifying.

I did end up taking one piece of clothing also, I found the shirt she is wearing in this picture in her closet and I took it so that I could put it in my hope chest along with my own mementos. I’m hoping that some day (some day far, far, faaaar in the future), The Kid will grace me with a granddaughter or grandson that I can spoil shamelessly and hand down my chest of wonders to.

So far in there, is my wedding bouquet from when I married the Kid’s dad, the pillow that held the rings, a newspaper from when the Kid was born, a variety of school projects, an assortment of other memorabilia, and now this shirt of grandma’s that I’ll put in there with this picture.

If I wasn’t feeling so lazy right now, I’d go take a picture of my hope chest so you could see what I’m talking about, my grandma is actually the one that gave it to me and it’s covered with carvings of birds and flowers all over it. It’s the perfect place to put all my treasures.

Hopefully that makes it easier on whoever has to go through my stuff when I’m gone.

Ugh. Why do I think these things?