Reader Stories


My great grandmother was the very epitome of fashion of her time. When she woke up every day, she dressed in either a dress, a suit with a skirt, or a blouse and a skirt, along with sensible pumps. If she went outside for more than something quick like checking the mailbox, she was wearing [...]

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Busted into Two Pieces

by on April 22, 2010


My mother’s jewelry box is in my closet, busted into two pieces. (I have five kids, and while no one confessed, I know it wasn’t me or the cat. We don’t have a cat.) I have coveted my mom’s jewelry box for years. It looks like a miniature Edwardian dresser with three felt-lined drawers and [...]

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My Mother and Jewels

by on April 19, 2010


My mother will be 80 next week exactly …She very rarely wore jewels …She still wears her very simple wedding ring , and once or twice she bought herself a jewel, but never or very seldom wore it. It is because it was considered vain, or bad to wear jewels. She came from an Italian [...]

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Tumultuous Relationship

April 16, 2010

God bless you for finding such a kind way to get past your relationship with your mom. My relationship with my mother was awful to put it kindly. I did everything to make her well that I could, including to wish I had her cancer. She was giving up and I told her we could [...]

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Princess Necklace

April 14, 2010

When I was a little girl I loved to look inside my Mother’s jewelery box. My absolute favorite pieces were two necklaces I never saw her wear. I think she wore them in her younger years when she dressed for fancy dances. They were made of sparkly rhinestones. I thought they looked like diamonds, something [...]

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Heart Shaped Necklace

April 14, 2010

Barbara – I was touched by your mention of your mother. When I was in the upper grades of elementary school I became aware of a necklace that my mom had. It wasn’t large but it caught my eye. It was a simple heart shaped necklace on a gold chain. For very special occasions she [...]

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Mystery and magic

April 14, 2010

My mother, now aged 85, has a small gold cross pendant with a diamond chip. She has had it for at least 65 years, and it held inside it a surprise that mystifies me still. The back of the cross had a tiny pinhole. When you held the hole to one eye, you could read [...]

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Mom’s Diamonds

April 14, 2010

My Mom was not a big jewelry freak. She liked costume pieces that were a little flashy for ‘events,’ but not on a regular basis. Being a Depression Kid, though, she knew the value of gold and stones and for an anniversary she asked my father to get her some nice diamond studs she could [...]

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Caring for a Dad with Alzheimer’s

April 8, 2010

My Dad, Stratford S. Hilliard, lost his seven-year fight with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in February 2009. He was two months shy of his 89th birthday. He was the 12th of 13 children, but ended up being the patriarch of our large extended family. Of almost all of his brothers and sisters who had children, he [...]

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