What was your favorite gift ever?
I'm trying to figure out what to get my son for his 26th birthday. It makes me wonder what my favorite gift ever was, and it's hard to think of anything.
Unrelated but my mom had 10 gold bangles that she had inherited from her own mother, and they had been family heirlooms for who knows how long. So besides being made of gold, they are beyond priceless.
They sat in her jewelry case her whole life, she wore a couple now and then. She would always wink at me and say they would be mine someday. I wear very little jewelry so I didn't covet them, but somehow just knowing they would be mine someday felt good. It wasn't about the monetary value but the fact that I'm so fortunate to have a maternal history being passed down through daughters - in a family dynamic that never fundamentally valued or esteemed women.
I'm quite sure these treasures are the only ones left because my foremothers refused to let them be sold off. I learned that my maternal great-grandmother suffered in poverty and widowhood in Morocco and still did not sell them. She made moonshine to stay alive. She died when my grandmother was 10 - my grandmother then became the head cook and cleaner for her older brothers - and still they did not get sold.
A week before she died, my mom went into hospice, she got out all her jewelry (she was really excited to get it all out and start sorting it out for all her grandchildren - it was truly sweet) and gave me the bangles. I saw my brother side-eye me as I packed them away. His face said, "You're taking them ALL?" Hell yes I freaking am, replied my face.
When I got home, I gave 5 of them to my daughter. I told her she doesn't need to wait until I die to enjoy them. She does need to know how special they are.
Unrelated but my mom had 10 gold bangles that she had inherited from her own mother, and they had been family heirlooms for who knows how long. So besides being made of gold, they are beyond priceless.
They sat in her jewelry case her whole life, she wore a couple now and then. She would always wink at me and say they would be mine someday. I wear very little jewelry so I didn't covet them, but somehow just knowing they would be mine someday felt good. It wasn't about the monetary value but the fact that I'm so fortunate to have a maternal history being passed down through daughters - in a family dynamic that never fundamentally valued or esteemed women.
I'm quite sure these treasures are the only ones left because my foremothers refused to let them be sold off. I learned that my maternal great-grandmother suffered in poverty and widowhood in Morocco and still did not sell them. She made moonshine to stay alive. She died when my grandmother was 10 - my grandmother then became the head cook and cleaner for her older brothers - and still they did not get sold.
A week before she died, my mom went into hospice, she got out all her jewelry (she was really excited to get it all out and start sorting it out for all her grandchildren - it was truly sweet) and gave me the bangles. I saw my brother side-eye me as I packed them away. His face said, "You're taking them ALL?" Hell yes I freaking am, replied my face.
When I got home, I gave 5 of them to my daughter. I told her she doesn't need to wait until I die to enjoy them. She does need to know how special they are.
