My Grandmother's Purse

I just read this post {http://thespohrsaremultiplying.com/2009/05/hand-prints/ by Heather Spohr whose little daughter Madeline recently passed away} to my mom & we commented that it makes you want to hire a glass cutter & keep that fragile bit of glass forever or tell your parents they cannot wash their windows. Or, as my mom said, "It's like Grandma's purse."

My grandmother always carried her purse with her. And I learned at an early age that one does not go into other people's purses w/o asking first. Of course, once I'd asked, a magical world was opened up to me. It was amazing what she had in in there! She died in 2001. Since then, my mom has moved 2 times, always moving that purse with her...but she's never opened it.

She couldn't handle it. So one day, a couple months ago, we sat down in the midst of our moving boxes (ready for Mom's 3rd move since 2001), and opened the purse & pulled out all it's goodies...and laughed and cried. And then gently packed it all back up and put it carefully in yet another moving box & brought it to our new house.

When my sister is ready to "handle" it, we shall sit down together: my mom (now a grandma herself), my sister & her baby, and me and open the purse again & pull out not just it's contents, but all the wonderful stories of my grandma & cry & laugh & cry all over again.

The Spohrs will find themselves doing the same with little Maddie's things over & over again. And that's ok. It's healthy. It's normal. It's ok.

There's a homage that says: "People die 2 deaths: once when they actually die & again when people stop speaking of & remembering them."

So here's to my Grandma~beautiful woman that she was!

Here's to Maddie~sweet little girl that she was.

And here's to handprints.........................

And purses..............................

Long may they live!