“They certainly are not typical heirlooms. However, the seemingly random items that I kept represent the everyday, seemingly mundane activities that I think about the most when I reflect on my life, and my family.”
Amy’s recollections of childhood are intimately intertwined with memories of her grandparents.I always felt very loved and safe with my grandparents. They were wonderful people, both of them. They spoiled me with their time and attention and made me feel like I was number one in their lives, and I think I was. My maternal grandmother and grandfather lived only one mile away from my home and they would frequently come over to our house and spend time with my brother and me.
She remembers her grandfather, Leo, as a patient man.
As a young man, my grandfather worked in a canning factory and lost half of his finger in a accident. It got caught in a press. I used to always think that his half finger was terribly interesting. He unfortunately died of a heart attack when I was seven years old. It was one of the worst days of my life. My brother and I cried for days and days.
Her grandmother, Sally, was a pre-school teacher and always proud of anything Amy would do.
As I got a bit older, after my grandfather had passed, my grandmother and I would play gin rummy a lot. I think she let me win most of the time. I used to love to eat breakfast with my grandmother. Her favorite was cheerios with bananas. To this day, I cannot eat that breakfast without thinking of her.
Amy remembers fondly her grandparents’ patience when they took her out on walks in the stroller.
I have always been very curious about nature and I have always loved the outdoors. I would insist on getting out of my stroller about every 20 feet to look at various things I saw on the ground: bugs, seeds, trash, etc. My grandparents were always very willing to wait for as long as it took for me to stop exploring and get back in the stroller. I used to like to collect acorns and put them in my pockets. My grandfather started to put them in little baggies so I could take them home. I still have one of them.
Amy’s baggie of acorns is pictured here, inside of her grandfather’s eyeglass case.
This eyeglass case my grandfather had on his chest of drawers. I acquired it through my grandmother, after my grandfather passed away. The baggie of acorns inside of the eyeglass case is one that I collected with my grandmother and grandfather. I now keep the eyeglass case on my own chest of drawers, so I can see it every morning. My grandparents were a huge part of my life and I still miss them every day.
In her later years, Amy’s grandmother became senile with dementia. Amy remembers visiting her every time she came home from college.She could not remember names very well towards the end of her life. One day when I was visiting her, she asked if I would write my name on the back of a picture that showed my immediate family. I did, and I asked if she wanted me to write everyone’s name on the back. She said, ‘No, just yours.’ I don’t mean to imply that she did not care about the rest of my family -- she did, very much. I think, though, that we had a special bond and it was at that moment that I realized I meant just as much to her as she did to me.