As I’ve pondered this project, the many reasons for doing it are very clear to me. First, writing about Mom has been a nagging undercurrent for me for many years. But I have a huge barrier against sitting down and directly addressing the many facets of our mostly tumultuous relationship. So, reason number one is the ability to address our relationship from a side door: to do the thing, without coming at it with a bulldozer.
Reason number two is that she loved her jewelry collection, and this is a way to honor her spirit. My mom loved collecting all kinds of things. And she also loved imagining that each individual treasure had great value. Things she collected included books, clothes, treasures from her travels, and sheets of US stamps, and apparently kitchen napkins, but I think that was just her disease progressing. I’m told by the gals who helped me clean up her house, that there were twenty-two packages of napkins in her kitchen.
In doing this project, I am forgiving myself for cleaning out her house, and donating most of her things. If she knew, she would kill me. Really. I mean it. I donated things that she would have preferred that I either keep (but where would I put them all?) or that I find the one of the five people on earth who collect those kinds of things and would have paid a pretty penny for it. I guess what she would have wanted was that I photograph each individual thingy or item of clothing, and put it on eBay. But I didn’t. So, in doing this one thing (which I really think she would have liked, if she could have understood it) I am making up for all those other things that simply went to woman’s shelters, Goodwill, and so on.
So, that’s it. I’m blogging about jewelry to create as a tribute to my Mom, her eye for fashion and her bold spirit.
Loving your new website. Can’t wait to view more. I feel joyful and kind of sad looking at the beautiful photographs of your mother enjoying life and her fabulous jewelry. What a wonderful idea.