Friday, November 1, 2013

The small details of our lives

One of the things I had to do was collect a rock from the
shore in Opatija.  I had to do it because my mother started, kind of, a tradition of collecting sand (or rock) from all of the different beaches (shores) she visits.  I think this is a very special meaning for her because of her fond and deep memories of growing up in California, along the coast, from Southern CA, where she was born, to No CA where she spent most of her life until moving to Denver...oh gosh, was it over 20 years ago now?  She tries to visit California once a year and always spends a good amount of time in Santa Cruz (Cruz is our family name).  Every year as I was growing up with my sisters we would go to the beaches at and around Santa Cruz.  Perhaps this is why, no matter what the location, I still enjoy the tremendous wonder of where the water meets the land.  It's a big world out there.

 When I get back home I'm going to find the picture of myself collecting sand from a beach my mother and I visited last we were in Italy.  It is a "before" picture taken when I weighed over 200lbs...more about that trip and the photo when I return home.

 This past year, as my mom was starting to settle up her affairs (her will) she sent all of us girls an email asking each one of us if there were any particular belongings that we wanted to receive when she was gone.  I thought of very little in terms of monetary belongings, if any actually.  Some of my mother's things I thought I might like to have we very simple and sentimental, like her collection of sand, rock and pebbles from the shores and beaches she has been to.  She keeps them in cute little glass bottles, some with shells, some accompanied with other relevant souvenirs.  She emailed me back, pleasantly surprised that I had even remembered such a small detail of her life.  It made me glad.

 What is a small detail of a loved one's life would you like to remember them by?  Or do you, yourself, have a personal connection to the beach, water, mountains, or particular country/region?
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2 comments:

  1. DianaNovember 2, 2013 at 6:01 AM

    Way cool story! Love the thought of the sand in the bottles. My Dad has been gone for 21 years now and the thing I have from him is a small, old toolbox that he used for work. It's an old, heavy metal one, but it has his name on it and I actually use it for my genealogy cemetery trips! I keep all my gravestone cleaning supplies in it! Yes, I'm one of those genealogy freaks who cleans gravestones! Family is very important to me, even when their gone!
    From my Mom, who's been gone now for 13 years, I have her high school class ring. No special reason, it's just really a neat looking ring!

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  2. Tracy ReifkindNovember 6, 2013 at 5:17 AM

    Diana,

    Yep, at the end of the day we all already own so much, and if we are lucky we don't "need" anything by the time our loved ones leave us.

    Thanks for sharing!

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