Memories On Mondays - Connections

One way of having connections back through time is through heirlooms, they don't have to be big or expensive, just something that has passed down through generations of the family.

I have a beautiful vase and a painting that I loved as a child - both were my maternal grandmothers and my mother passed them on to me a few year's after my Grandma Win had died. From my paternal grandmother I have a jewelry box that she was given on the her 21st birthday (I will write more about that in another post) and 2 cane/wicker chairs.

Me as a little 'un in Grandma's big chair

I remember Grandma Grace having one of the chairs in her home while I was growing up and my parents had an identical one, which was originally Grandmas too, she had given it to my Mum when I was born as it was a good chair to breast-fed in.

and with my Mum in Grandma's chair during the same visit

When my Mum and Dad divorced Mum kept the chair and so it moved with us, Mum even lent it to me when I had my first 2 daughters to breast-fed in thus continuing the tradition. Numerous photos of my first grand-daughter and her Mum where also taken in the chair when visiting my mother's house.

I had always asked Mum if I could have the chair one day either when she no longer wanted it or if she could will it to me if she so decided.

Grandma Grace had also kept her chair and when she died my Dad gave it to my Mum so the pair of chairs could be back together again. Mum had her chair recovered a few years earlier and was lucky to be able to match the same fabric so she could get Grandma's chair recovered too.

I felt quite blessed when Mum passed the chairs on to me a few years ago. My eldest daughter now covets them so I know that they will have a good home to go to - although if all 4 of my children decide they want them a King Solomon decision might have to be made. Can you will 2 chairs between 4 - maybe they can have them a year about?

Some of the cane/wicker is slowing unwinding and there a few gaps in some of the bottom cane-work of the one my Grandma had kept, but given their age they are in a remarkably good condition. I would love to have them patched but as the older cane has darkened naturally with age I am not sure that it would look right (or even if it is still possible).

I don't sit in them often now, one sits in the spare room hosting a collection of teddies comfortably on it's cushions and the other sits in my study. Each time I look at them I am reminded of my Grandma Grace and my connection to her back through time. Somehow that is rather comforting to my heart and soul.