Blog Post #1

My Family Heirlooms

I think when I was younger I never really thought about my heritage and family heirlooms. Things like that don't occur to most young five to ten year olds. But, as I got older I began to realize that it was something that people treasure and talked about often.

I remember being in the seventh grade and my teacher explaining a project we were going to do on our ancestors. That was when I first took the time to actually sit down with someone to talk about where I came from.

First, I went home and asked my parents what they knew. My mother knew some but told me it would be best if I asked my grandmother if I wanted a more accurate take on it all. My dad on the other hand knew some but told me he did not know much and he was sorry that he did not. Unlike my mother my dad had lost his parents when he was really young and being a teenage boy he never really paid attention to their stories.

The next time I saw my grandmother I asked her. I remember walking in the front door saying “hey Oma can you tell me about my heritage?”. Her response was hilarious with the answer of “Thank the lord, somebody wants to learn.!”.

We sat at the table with two extremely old family bibles. They did not smell the greatest but I guess you can't expect something over one hundred years old to smell like roses.

My grandmother began to plunge into her family bible telling me all the places we had ancestors from. It was amazing to hear it all but the place my grandmother was most proud of was being from Yugoslavia and that she was 45% slavian.

After we were done with everything my grandmother went upstairs and brought down a gold necklace and with it were a set of charms. She looked at me and said “I know this isn't from the homelands because all I can give you is stories but, here is something I have from my adventures in life and I want you to have it”.

She proceeded to tell me where she had gotten all of her charms from all her travels cross country and abroad with my grandfather. It was a big deal for her to give this to me for I am the youngest girl in the family and I had always thought she would give most of her jewelry to my sister and my other cousin.

Now when I look back on it and you ask me what heirlooms I have and what they mean to me. I think about the time that I shared with my grandmother and watching her face light up when someone asked her about our heritage. I think that is the greatest heirloom I could have ever received. It may not be a tangible item but it is something that holds so much joy and happiness to me.