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I have been going through my late mother's belongings. It's been sad and difficult at times.
But as I went around the house picking up items I've seen in all our houses over the years - a battered pair of silver candlesticks, a little vase, an ornament, an old rose serving platter - I've found notes tucked inside or stuck to them. "These were given to your grandmother on her twenty first birthday." "This is the last plate from Nana's wedding dinner service." 'This was a present from Bill on my thirtieth birthday." How I treasure these things and I suspect she went around the house in her last year leaving the trail of family history. There is no note on the blender or the computer. But Nana's old butter dish, the commonplace objects that I remember using as a child, that would fetch maybe fifty cents in the op shop, mean so much to me.
We are a family of archivists. There are letters and mementoes from my great grandfather and my grandfather also kept everything. From a leave pass during World War 1 in his old wallet, to the silver soap dish he kept in his uniform pocket that's dented from a bullet or shrapnel. My grandmother kept every receipt for everything she bought to furnish their one and only home in Wingham. But it is the books - especially the books - I love. My grandfather was a stretcher bearer at Flanders and his First Aid for the Wounded with his name and rank on the flyleaf was carried through the war along with a tiny book of Kipling and a the story of Mary Queen of Scots.
And then there's "Our Home Work" by Mrs Wigley which belonged to my Grandfather's mother (signed Emily Smith 1882). It's a work of Domestic Economy and its utterly fascinating and while it covers the essentials she also tackles the subject of Intemperance, not just the evil drink, but temper, intolerance, ignorance. She talks of the necessity of clean air (recommends sleeping with windows open)fresh food, the pleasure hard work can bring and a loving environment. She lived An Ordered Life, alone in the country, with a large family and infrequent visits to town. Mrs Wigley I salute you.
Cheers
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