sigh
There are a few family heirlooms that are mine, most of which belonged to my father and have been given to my by my mother over the years. Tonight as part of the operations to rearrange my room into a suitable working environment I’ve lost the one I love the most.
I put my fathers candy dish on my new “desk” along with the sacred heart statue (one of my mothers most treasured from her collection) and a small one of Matthew the Apostle (a gift because of my middle name). I figured, safest spot there is available while I work and my laptop was like a half a foot away, although with a major pile of stuff on it lol.
There’s a simple cloths hanging thing, basically two polls on rollers with a crossbar to hang shirts from, the darn thing is well known for falling apart and in fact has been leaning for months :
Trying to move it to get to my bookshelf, for which I plan to throw out the remainder of as my old friends stand is now there… The rack came apart, the one poll narrowly missing the sacred heart statue and the crossbar impaling the lid of the candy dish :'(
I would rather it have hit me in the heart then strike that dish.
There’s at least 6 or 7 large pieces of the lid and tens or hundreds of smaller shards. The glass was mostly just on the floor in one area and on the side of the desk. Both sets of my spare sheets were also close enough to catch glass as they were right next to it. So I can’t even change my bedding tonight. I vacuumed the area and most of the room as well as blocking it off so the dog can’t get there. With luck maybe my mother can glue the bigger pieces of the lid together… That’s what she did with Babies top. A very small oil lamp, I think my Grandmother busted it (her mom) and she glued the pieces back together.
The actual dish (bottom) is fine and the contents are too aside from the shards of glass. But the top is fragged. My father used to keep his keys and things in it. And so have I for about the last 10 years (that I’ve had house keys lol) along with some of my more personal items. Of all of the things that I have, I’ve always loved this heirloom.. I’ve always tried to protect it from damage, it had one lone chip in the lid and until now I’ve been able to keep it safe. I think it was my great grandmothers, I know it was from the farm and like over a hundred years old.. In fact I’ve only ever seen another one like it in my life.
My mothers not killed me yet, maybe she knows I’d do it myself if I thought it would help : but I know my Aunt (Dads sister) would fracture me if she was here and he’d probably break my ass with a belt if he was alive, although in that case it would’ve happened in the first place…
The most important items I have in this world, that dish, the radio, and the gramophone… all of which are much older then me and have been in the family for generations… Heirlooms even before they were passed onto my Dad I would reckon. It’s long been my hope that some day I would have the means to restore that radio to working condition. I doubt that workable vacuum tubes and replacement parts would be around by then even if I knew how to do it but hey, a man can dream can’t he?
I’m sorry pa…