Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

Art I don't believe in 'haunting' I am sure you will be fine.
My motto is 'if in doubt throw it out'

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

During my first trip to the USA in 2003, I met a chap called John who was a volunteer at the USAF Museum on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio.

Over subsequent visits John and I became friends, and we always met up when I was stateside.
He had the same surname as my Uncle, so it is possible we were actually related at some point in the ancient past. He had been based in the UK in the sixties, and one of his daughters was born over here during his deployment.

He was a supporter of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight, and was instrumental in getting one of the Flight's aircraft flying again.
He discovered there was a Hurricane over here that was airworthy but for a bent propeller. He knew there was un un-airworthy Hurricane in the American museum that had a serviceable prop', so made contact with the Memorial Flight.
Subsequently the props were exchanged and the UK Hurricane became airworthy as a result.

Sadly he died six weeks after the last time I saw him in 2016. On my next trip to the states, his widow said, "I think John would have wanted you to have this", and presented me with a cloth RAF badge he had been given for his involvement, I think, in helping the Memorial Flight.

Yer tiz.

617 Squadron RAF, the Dambusters.





It has pride of place between a pair of my Grandmother's seven facet mirrors, above my Great Grandfather's clock that in turn is sitting atop my Lovely Cousin's Grandparents' bureau.
The wooden bowl on the bureau was made by my Uncle, (who lives with us) and the wooden vase was made by his father, one of my other Grandfathers.

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

All lovely things to have Fruitcake...

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

When my mum died I took a woolen long jacket she used to wear . I wore it for years , I couldn't wash it as I could smell my mums unique smell . I think I eventually gave it to charity after about 5 years ( washed of course ) I did have a Victorian butterfly necklace which was grans then mums but it got stolen when I was burgled . But I honestly dont want other peoples stuff , I dont need things to remember people .

I think after the garage the boots may make their way to the charity shop Art , dont feel bad about it , as nice as it was of her daughter to think of you

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

Fruitcake, what an interesting story and lovely display.

I have several keepsakes that mattered to my extended family. While we have written down the stories associated with many, their stories fade with time, and it is hard for me to feel that same sentimentality for the item that I do for these people I miss so much. The keepsakes I have to remember them are altogether different. It's is such a quandary, and I have told my children not to feel guilty about parting with any of the items.

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

Art, I think I would feel guilty if I binned them too.

One idea I have come up with is a compromise.

I think I would donate the best ones to a charity shop. That way I would see it as helping someone who really needs a size 4.

The not so good, I might try experimenting using as planters.
People do this with old Wellies.
Make some draining holes in the bottom, put some gravel in first, then fill with soil or compost and plant something that trails down the sides.
Something similar to this perhaps?

https://upcyclemystuff.com/how-to-up...ulent-planter/

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

This was a special gesture, I am sure both of you benefitted from that friendship.

A friend of mine was much older than me, after her hubby died, I took her for groceries, banking, dog to the vet, etc for about three years. After the trips, we would have a glass of wine from a clear decanter every week before I went home to my hubby. She was well off, and when she passed, her daughter offered up many articles of hers as a keepsake for me. The only thing I asked for was the glass decanter. I still have it and recall her fondly when I use it.

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

What a lovely gesture by your friend's daughter. How nice the you can think of her in such a special way.

When my grandmother died, my mother asked my siblings and me to go through the house and take anything that we might want before she began the task of clearing it out.

My mom was surprised that I chose this dated, chipped, and crazed cookie jar that doesn't go with my decor at all. However, she did understand my association with all of the happy times and wonderful treats that surrounded it. It sits in a place of prominence in my kitchen, so I can still remember.

I expect that in fifty years, like my grandmother and me, the jar will be long gone - and that is just fine. It is good enough that for so many decades it was a source of so much happiness.

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

The Communicator was born high in the Southern Alps of New Zealand near Mt Whitcome. Alternating high and low temperatures cracked off a lump of quartz the size of a man’s head, which tumbled down the steep terrain to splash into the icy waters of the Rakaia River. A thousand years of tumbling, rolling, sometimes freely, sometimes stuck between bigger boulders for a year or ten, ground off the rough edges and polished the stone to the size of a goose’s egg. After Lake Coleridge the gradient shallowed and the stone moved slowly and daily down to the sea. For years it rolled up and down the beach with the surf, slowly moving north until it reached Birdlings Flat.
In the summer of 1954, John Bennett, First Lieutenant of HMNZS Tui, went ashore from Tui, which was berthed in Lyttelton Harbour, and a friend took him out for the day, arriving at Birdlings Flat in the late afternoon. John walked the beach, missing his wife and son far away in Auckland. He picked up a pebble here, a shell there looking for a memento to take home to them when the time came. Then he saw what he at first thought was a gannets egg. It was large, off white and shiny. He bent down to pick it up and was surprised by it’s weight. It felt heavy in his pocket so he held it in his hand all the way back to his ship. In the weeks that followed, while Tui was away from Auckland, it was never far from his hand and on his return to his family he gave it into the keeping of his wife , Lilian.
In 1970, after a long illness, John died and after he had gone Lilian often would hold the stone and be at one with John for a while. For twelve years Lilian survived without her beloved John but became increasingly saddened and unhappy. In 1982 Lilian died suddenly of nothing in particular and the Communicator passed to Michael, the son. And he, too, would hold it and think of his father and his mother. Not many days passed that he didn’t. Michael named the stone ‘The Communicator’ knowing that it was a link to the past, and would last longer than any family. !

Re: Keepsakes When Someone Dies...

What a weird thing to give someone. sounds like she just couldn't be bothered to take them to the charity shop.