Treasures old and new...

Yesterday I went for a visit to see my folks who live about an hours drive

and to catch up with my older brother Dan who came

for the day from the Mainland.

It's always good to see each other and these visits I treasure

since they are too few and far between. Life is busy and

it's not always easy to co-ordinate every ones schedule.

While my mom and I sat having tea, she brought out a few

things she wanted to pass down to me.

The first was this locket which belonged to my

Great Uncle Bill's mother-in-law.

 It was a graduation gift from her parents.

What beautiful engraving it has!

 I remember my mom wearing it with love.

Inside she has a picture of Great Uncle Bill and my dad at around the same age.

 The picture of my dad on the right, was taken on their honeymoon in Niagara Falls, Ontario...

 My Uncle Bill is gone now but when he was alive,

him and my dad were the best of friends.

He was my mom's favorite uncle as well, hence the

significance of the photos she carried in the locket.

She then gave me another locket which belonged to my Great Aunt Thora...

My Great Uncle Len gave it to her during the war.

We're not sure if he sent it from overseas or had someone give it to her here...

She  also gave me this photo of my Great Grandad Cairns...

She wrote a little note on the back explaining that the picture was taken just before he went

off to fight in WW1. He looks quite pensive....justifiably so.

 The frame was a gift to my mom after graduating from nursing school in 1971.

 These are the stories that begin to fade in time when people grow old and pass on.

Then my brother came to the table and brought with him a belated birthday gift.

He is an art lover and is always searching out beautiful and interesting things for me.

Here is the gorgeous card by Diane Kremmer called "Watchful Eyes Under Sickle Moon"..

To go along with the crow theme, this beautiful big mug from Mexico and my favorite tea...

Something else he brought was a handmade tribute album of pictures of my late sister Tracy...

 As he does with all of his projects, he spent many hours printing old photos onto

special paper and adding his own cut out birds and designs to go along with the pictures...

My last post was about losing and finding things in the thrift shop and so will some

of these items become lost in time. The stories will have gaps and question marks someday.

But for now I will keep them all close to my heart and tell the stories as best I can.

Keeping the past alive.

These photos in the silver locket dated 1942 are self evident.

I'll wear this with love on Valentines day for Len and Thora.