Our Grandmothers’ Treasures

It’s always so moving to read the stories that accompany the posts that our members share at Dusty Old Thing. Sometimes the stories reflect challenges. Other times it’s adventure. Sometimes the stories are of early death of ancestors from wars or illnesses. When we read those we have to stop and wonder about their lives and the plain truth that all of us come from people who may have experienced either the same, or similar events.

One photo stuck us. It was of a beautiful Great-Grandmother who died in the Spanish Flu epidemic. Many of us have stories in our families from that awful time. It made us think, too, of the “things” that our grandmothers and their mothers may have treasured, the things that they might have used before hard times struck, or the things that they may have come to value later. Most, even when faced with hardship, wanted to create beauty around them.

Here are a few recently shared with us by our members. The captions are in their own words.

from: Linda Midgett Lentz: “Bessie MidgettMy ggmother.She died in 1919 from Spanish Flu.I think she is beautiful.Taken about 6 months before she died. She was born on the Outer Banks of NC. “

from Pamela Roberts Nipper: “This was my Grandmother’s cameo she got on her wedding day March 17, 1907! I wear it when I do Victorian caroling at Christmas time.”

from: Steve Mandell: “An old table top box owned by my grandmother. I don’t know what it’s for exactly? “

This is a fantastic antique celluloid box. Readers, how do you think it was used?

fromPhyllis Helm: “My grandmother’s china and crystal on her Irish Linen tablecloth that she cross stitched and her cousin tatted (the lace edge).“