family heirlooms

marie at emma calls me mama is having an heirloom party & i'm so happy that i get to join in.

i'm the youngest of 9. i have 4 sisters & guess what? 4 brothers.

we had a little mini family reunion over the labor day weekend. it was great to be together, but we were missing 2 sisters, so our circle wasn't complete. actually, since our mom died in 2000, i think we've all felt like our circle isn't complete. i'm planning to do a post just about mom, on oct. 19th, on what would have been her 95th birthday .

when mom died, i received a few pieces of her jewelry:

the necklace was one of several opals she had. it's funny, she never owned a diamond or ever expressed any desire to own one. but, she loved opals (her birthstone).

she loved cameos, too. the one in the middle was her favorite (& mine). my oldest sister, martha, gave it to her. it was just an avon cameo that opened up. it originally had some kind of perfume in it (cream like stuff, probably lily of the valley?). after the perfume was gone, you could use it as a locket.
i'm not sure where the other 2 cameos came from, but i've always loved them.
look at the detail of the face on this one. so sweet!

the crown was given to her by my 2nd oldest sister, billie.

they were very popular in the 60's & the different colors represented the 9 of us (her jewels, hah!). i thought billie would want this back but she said she had one of her own, so i'm the lucky one to keep it. i keep the avon cameo & the crown pinned to a pillow on my bed.

mom had her 1st baby when she was just 18. by the time she was 29, she'd had 8 children. she thought she was finished, but surprise, surprise! just a few months before she turned 36, she had 1 more! me!

my siblings have always said i was very spoiled by mom & them. i think i was just really, really loved. rich, my closest brother in age, teased & tortured me beyond belief & ruth, my closest sister in age, had to always take care of me. i thought she was really mean to me, hah! now, she's my best friend.

2 of my brothers were career army guys. and they always sent presents to me.
rich sent me pearl earrings from tokyo (i lost one :( ) & a beautiful jewelry box from tokyo, too. terry bought me these 2 bracelets in germany, when i was around 9 (1960ish). i have always especially loved the turquoise one.


my oldest brother, dewey (yes, that's his name), bought me this id bracelet when i was 5 or 6.

and the spelling is correct. that's how my name used to be spelled. until i turned 14, and i thought it would be cool to change the spelling. and since randi was just my nickname, i could change it to anything i wanted. i don't really know why i've held on to the bracelet all these years. maybe just to prove my wrists were once that small?

thanks, marie, for having this party. hope you have another one, so i can take another trip down memory lane.