Money, jewelry, one of those hula dancer dash board jiggle dancers? What have you inheirited from a deceased loved one?
When my Grandmother died, since I was the closest living grand daughter, I was allowed to go through her jewelry box and pick out a couple of pieces to remember her by. She didn’t have any good jewelry, but lots of costume jewelry given to her as gifts over the years.
My favorite piece is a silver necklace with fake blue topaz like stones that are shaped like flowers. It comes with matching screw on earrings and a bracelet. Whenever I’ve worn it, I’ve received tons of compliments.
After my grandmother’s death, I was given her original wedding and engagement rings by my aunt. They are small and inexpensive, and my grandmother hadn’t worn them for years, but they hold great sentimental value for me. My father had them restored for me and I wore them as my “something old” at my wedding.
“There are more things you don’t know than there are things that I do know. I despair of the imbalance.” – Dr. Morgenes, The Dragonbone Chair
Some neat things – a set of wooden candle holders from a great uncle, a ceramic cream pitcher with a cat climbing on it from a mother-in-law, and a car from hell from my step-dad.
My brother had a good car, and mom doesn’t drive, so she said we could have it for a spare.
The car (a 70-something Valiant) was idling in mom’s driveway the first Christmas after step-dad died. We had it loaded with Christmas stuff, the gearshift was in Park and the emergency brake was pulled on.
Somehow, something failed, and the darned thing rolled backwards out of the driveway, up a slight incline, turned, and rolled on down the hill, taking out two cars before stopping. The emergency brake was still “on”.
The kids had fun riding home in the “haunted” car – I’d pull up beside them and they’d be banging on the windows, doing their own version of the Scream.
It was kind of an ice breaker, that first Christmas without step-dad/grandpa. It’s been more than 15 years and the kids still talk about it.
Some money, from my father-in-law. Boy, does it help.
Not really inherited, but we took a few things from my father-in-law’s house after he died. My husband got several of his mother’s bibles, and a huge Strong’s Concordance. I got some seashells that his mother had collected.
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My father’s socks, Varnets, Swiss Army knife, $600 and alcoholism.
I’ve long since spent the money, worn out the socks and lost the sunglasses and knife. The legacy of alcoholism remains as well as his bloody words of wisdom, ‘If your not going to do it right, don’t do it at all.’
Thanks, Dad. I’ve decided not to do anything at all.
I inherited my aunt’s China. She passed away on my 17th birthday and when I went back to Ohio for the funeral, everyone kept saying how much I looked like her when she was younger. She was only 42 years old when she died (cervical cancer) and looked very, very thin… not at all like I remember when I was a child. I really like the dishes though. I just got them from my mom a few months ago… they’re really pretty.
Some furniture, china, silver, rugs, etc. but my favorite thing is my grandmother’s ring. It’s tiny, a very slender gold band with 3 small pearls.
What makes it special is that it was made for her by her favorite brother. She was the youngest of 8. Will, the brother closest to her in age, was an amateur jeweller. He saved up the money and made the ring for her. He died when he was 21, of a cold that turned into pneumonia.
Next neatest: a silk wedding kimono, in deep royal blue. My dad was stationed in Japan for a while after the war, and was housed with a Japanese couple. They insisted he needed a formal kimono for his new bride, but were frankly disbelieving when he told them the measurements. (She tipped almost 6’ too.)
I once dated a gal whose grandmother had been a stripper, back in the days when you couldn’t get 100% naked on stage. My girlfriend inherited her grandmother’s pasties!!! I kid you not!!
Yep, a dog. From my grandmother, who passed away in November. My great-grandmother, who is still living, just moved in to an assisted-living facility, and unfortunately, she couldn’t take Teddy (the dog) with her. My uncle Jon offered to take him, but realized, after having Teddy for about a week, it just wasn’t going to work out. Teddy is a people dog, and Jon & his wife work all day, so Teddy gets left alone too much. My mom called me yesterday, and asked if we could take him.
Pets are allowed for visits at the place where my Grandma lives, and it’s only a few miles from us. My uncle lives about an hour away. My husband and kids are home all day. Teddy is a small dog, a shi-tzu (sp?) IIRC. He knows me and my family, and he and my daughter get along famously. How he’ll get along with my cat remains to be seen.
How could I say no? So, now I will be inheriting a dog.
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When a neighbor died in our apartment on Lawrence, we ended up with some of her stuff, because there was no one else to even clean out her apartment. The only things I remember from her stuff were:
Her ashes, in what looked a lot like a point can and,
Her emergency last rights kit, which was a large wooden crucifix with a hidden compartment full of candles, an empty holy water vial and a yellowed set of instructions for administering last rites.
I got one of my Great-Grandma’s rosaries (each of the great-grandkids got one–she had a ton of them) and her watch. Neither was worth much money-wise, but it meant the world to me that my uncle let me have them. I carried the rosary in my wedding bouquet as my “something blue.”
Hey Pooch, I ‘hear’ the mad at dad with the alcoholism, my dad was a drunk with a great enabler in my mom,‘your dad is just VERY tired’…he is face down in his mashed potatoes, MOM, that is called drunk! You don’t have to stay in that place though, you can be better and stronger than he was, don’t give up on yourself.
The most precious thing I’ve inherited was by accident. Gramps had died and my sister in law was intent on getting everything she could (she brought a U Haul to the funeral, she was READY!!) We were getting only small things when she pinched me and whispered, ‘Take the sewing cabinent, I can’t be seen getting everything bigger than everyone else’ The pinching worked, and I asked for the cabinent ( I don’t sew!) When we got home, I went through the cabinent and found ‘Mudder’s’ birthday book in her own handwriting of many, many years before. I love it, and it is more special than any gift I’ve ever been given.
Judy
“It’s hard to avoid reading because ever wheres we go, reading is there.”
It’s hard to pick any one thing, but one of my favorite is my mother’s recipe card box, with all of her recipes written out in her own hand. Mom’s been dead nearly 15 years, but when I take out a card written by her and make that recipe I can almost feel like she’s there in the kitchen with me.
Melin, you’re so right. As far as real inheritances, the little box file of recipes is central. Packing up after my mom died, that was the one thing that totally clobbered me into tears.
It may be a woman-thing but it’s anything but mundane and pointless. Making the good food my (great)grand-mother made may not be glamorous or politically correct, but people still need good food, lovingly prepared.
I got a really cool Zippo from my grandpaw. It was in the original box, and had a service slip in it from when he sent it in in 1962 to get it fixed. I loved that thing.
The only things I have actually “inherited” were my mother-in-laws wedding and engagement rings. I wear them on a chain around my neck. However, I did “obtain” some things from my grandmother.
When she died a couple of years ago, I got her cookie jar. She had twelve grandchildren and she practically raised all of us. She always kept the same kind of cookies in that jar. (Keebler’s Opera Creams) I still remember the summer I became tall enough to reach it so I didn’t have to rely on my older cousins to give me cookies. Whenever we went to church with her, she always wrapped up some of those cookies to give to us during the sermon so we would keep quiet. I also got a painting of two children crossing a bridge at night with an angel in the background watching over them. My grandmother had that painting in her den as far back as I can remember and I have always been fascinated by it.
My oldest aunt is a real busy-body and is always right. She decided that after my grandmother died, the kids (my dad and his brothers and sisters) would clean out the house and if any of us grandchildren wanted anything we could bid on it! My grandmother would have had a fit if she knew this. She was not that type of calculating person.
When my father made the trip to clean out the house he asked me if there were any things that I wanted. I told him I wanted the painting and the cookie jar and that I was not paying for them because my grandmother would have hated that idea and just because my aunt is a heartless, calculating control freak is no reason that my grandmother’s grandchildren should go without momentos of the woman who raised them. I have no idea if my dad paid for those items or not, and I better never find out he did, but I have them anyway!
I have a hobby. I have the world’s largest collection of seashells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you’ve seen some of it.