Inheritance

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I come from a nostalgic family. We hoard memorabilia, not wanting to throw out anything with sentiment. So, when my great-grandmother passed away, my family members and I inherited a lot of the items that surrounded her life. The diamond in my engagement ring was hers, I have loads of her costume jewelry, and when I crochet, I use her hooks. Talk about sentiment. My Granny took exceptional care of her things. Many of her clothes and jewels were kept in their original packaging, and her crochet hooks look totally new except for the worn parts where her hands held them.

That's my favorite part of them, the worn parts. You can see where her fingers gripped the hooks as she yarned-over and counted stitches. It's like she's helping me along as I work on whatever project I'm into at the time, and to think of her hands holding the same thing I'm holding makes me feel such a connection to her.

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My mother has told me time and time again that she and Granny used to crochet together for hours, and Granny would sit with her legs crossed and bounce her foot up and down while she worked. If you could attend a family function at my parents' house where my Mimi (my mom's mom, Granny's daughter), my mother, my sister and I are in the same room, you'd notice something — we all often sit with our legs crossed, bouncing a foot a little.

I guess it's part of my inheritance.

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