Some things withstand the test of time. The people we love don’t. That’s why we love their things.
After my parents’ died in 2011 my three siblings and I divided what our parents did not designate. We wanted everything–address books, cookbooks, out-of-date chotchkas–not for the monetary value but the value of remembering. If you can’t have the person then you have their things.
Stick around long enough and everything comes back. My parents’ bedroom set was Chippendale with wood inlay that would be cost- prohibitive today. It was determined the vintage set, although worse for the wear, would go to my nephew who was recently engaged. The furniture was stored in my sister’s home in Florida until her son got married the next year. The four pieces which moved with my parents from New York to Florida in 1974 went back on Route 95 to New York City where my nephew lived. The furniture moved back to Florida the following year with my nephew and his wife who decided to settle in Florida. The furniture moved again the next year to their new home in another town. The four pieces did not quite fit into their house. I convinced them not to split the set and the furniture made its way back to New York… where it sits in my daughter’s bedroom.
My parents’ furniture moved two times more in the past four years as it did in the 60 plus years they had it. More money was spent moving the furniture than the furniture cost. But that does not matter. My daughter wakes up to that set every day and thinks of her grandparents. She told me that she put her jewelry in the felted drawer where Grandma used to put hers. Through countless laughter and tears that make up a 62 year marriage and up and down Route 95 four times my parents’ bedroom set has withstood the test of time…and it’s still ticking.
