Material things are valuable in as much as they bring value to your life. Surrounding yourself with beautiful things is not a sin as it makes your house yours. Most of the things we gather are memories of the places you’ve been, the joy they brought you when you found them or the people that gave them to you.
This vase has little material value and I didn’t pay anything for it. It is one of my treasures because it reminds me of the woman it used to belong to. My sister.
It’s a sad story so I’ll keep it short. My sister lived abroad at the time she got sick and when cancer got her, all the things she’d bought to make that rental hers were left for me to dispose of. All the rage I felt at that time I directed to all those things that had become useless. I didn’t want them. I gave most of them away, except for a few things I thought someone in our family in Bucharest would want. And this vase.
As I remember it, my sister had bought it at a yard sale and she was quite proud of it. For as long as I can remember she loved to have flowers in her room.
Getting this vase back home was an adventure in itself as I stuffed it in my carry-on luggage and was so afraid it might break.
For the past ten years, it was my mother who kept the vase at her house. I’ve always wanted it but I wouldn’t dare ask for it. When my mother passed away last year, this was the first thing I wanted to take from her house. Next on the list were the many plants she had and dedicated an insane amount of time to take care of.
I’m not the sort of person that keeps pictures of loved ones around the house, but I have my own ways of keeping their memory alive.
I try very hard to keep my mother's plants alive and I have this thing of beauty to remember my sister by.
I think this captures the essence of the people they were and it’s a way of erasing the sad image of their last days, riddled by disease, frail, wasting away in front of my eyes. I’d rather forget those and remember only the better days.
You did well to keep those things, your sister's vase and your mother's plants keep part of what they thought and felt 😊
!LADY
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100% in agreement with that.
I only sorted my Mom's belongings once I felt ready. She was big on decluttering, not materialistic at all, so it was easy. I gave away most and only kept a couple of things that's a reminder of happier days.
Nice seeing you @ladyrebecca.
I'm so sorry to hear about the passing of your sister and mom! I've kept a few things of my dad's and it makes me smile every time I see them. I have his last driver's license, a shoe shine brush, and a tin of his chewing tobacco. It's so strange how the sense of smell can trigger so many memories, the tobacco does that for me.