In preparation for blogging about Mom’s jewelry, I bought some books about collecting costume jewelry. As I browsed through them, it became immediately clear that Mom wasn’t buying jewelry for a collection. She simply loved wearing and buying jewelry. She didn’t look for jewelry from a specific designer. She didn’t shop for vintage jewelry. She didn’t care if the jewelry was valued by collectors or signed by a well-known designer. She was simply buying it because she liked it, or maybe, in the case of second-hand baubles, it was simply too good of a deal to pass up!
One of Mom’s favorite pastimes was matching her outfits with jewelry. As she put together blouses, jackets and pants from her vast closet, she would hang them all on one hanger, and then add a necklace and earrings from her collection, slipping the necklace over the hook of the hanger, and clipping the earrings on the blouse or the hanger itself.
When Mom moved to the Alzheimer’s home, it was really easy to bring her clothes to her, because each outfit in her closet came complete with matching jewelry! Even now, she continues to love arranging and rearranging the outfits in her closet, moving a necklace, scarf, or belt from one outfit to the other.
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I LOVE your idea of combining your Mother’s jewelry with the present day events.
One of my friends is a tremendous collector of jewelry. When I told her of my idea to give a piece of jewelry to each person who attends my Memorial Service (sometime in the far future, I’m hoping!), I asked if she would be in charge. She said “Sure!, because that means I get first pick!!”
Our choice of accessories tells many things about a person — and I look forward with great anticipation to your stories.
One day a woman I hardly knew, knocked on my door. She happened to be the daughter-in-law of a friend of mine that had passed away. The friend had been a dear, kind, blind lady that I had picked up for Bible Study once a week. I had attended her funeral a couple months before.
The daughter-in-law handed me a box with a piece of jewelry in it. It was simple and reminded me very much of the woman it had belonged to. She had been a black lady that had grown up in servitude to white people and we used to talk about how hard her life had been. I am sure the jewelry never came to be hers till years later when her adult son became a successful professional and took his mom and dad into live with him.
The small brooch is not the flashy type of costume jewelry I wear now, but that piece of jewelry from an old friend is priceless to me.
Hi Barbara and Shooey,
What a lovely idea to write about your mom through her jewelry. My mom also has lots of jewelry and is slowly giving it away to me, my sister-in-law and my granddaughters. She is probably the best dressed 91 year old in her senior independent living home in Cleveland. Of course, she would never tell you her age, but loves the compliments she gets at the Dr.’s office (they have to know her age there) when they meet her and say that she looks like she’s in her 70’s. I’ll look forward to the next entry on your blog and will comment accordingly.
Have a good Shabbat.
xoxo Adriane