The Memory Box

When I was in high school my upon my request, my daddy made me a wooden box. This box is about eighteen inches long, ten inches wide and twelve inches high. A good size box. He stained it and attached a plain silver handle. The box is simple and to me it is the most beautiful thing he has ever made.

For nearly 15 years I've keep odd and end little things in the box to remind me of yester-year. Today, I decided to prepare the box for the next generation. It will still be a few years before I actually hand it over but I wanted to go through it today anyway.

Inside I found cards I had recieved as a small child from my grandmother who passed from this life in 1998 and my favorite aunt whom I don't see as often as I should. The cards from my grandmother were especially hard to read without crying.

There was the medal I won at a regional drama competition as well as the remark pages we were given, the tassel from my graduation cap, and several pictures and mementos from my senior year inside my box.

I found cards from Nickel for various holidays, a couple of invitations to our wedding that was in 1999 and Mother's Day cards from my daughter. Poems that I like.

A little brown piggy bank that if I remember correctly was my great-grandmother's. My mother's senior year picture was still in an old frame along with a picture of my dad long before he knew that name.

After Nick's grandmother passed away I saved a few of her momentos like a book young Nickel wrote when he was maybe 6 and a picture of Nickel with long curly hair (if you know my husband you'll understand why this picture is important!).  And a host of other memories from along the way.

Staring at these memories I want to laugh and I want to cry. Laugh at the fun I've had along the way and cry for the people that completed their jouney ahead of me, including the children two of my dearest friends have lost.

I'm not ready to turn over the box to Peanut, but already I've stored special art project she's made. Soccer pictures from the three seasons she played, the program from the ballet recital we were in, some blog posts that I printed out as a reminder of the funny things she said or the things I wanted her to know about me and my life. My hope is that she will cherish these memories in the Memory Box as much as I have cherished her.