If we are lucky we have at least a few special items that have been passed down from earlier generations, heirlooms that we will in time pass on to a younger generation in turn. These items are not always valuable in a monetary sense - their value it often in their stories and history and links to our past. Just as important as keeping those physical items, however, is keeping the stories and history that they represent and passing those details on with them.
I've written
before about cleaning out the family home after the deaths of my
parents, and how my sister and I simply did not keep things we didn't
know the story of. So many items we looked at with no idea of whether
they were family heirlooms or trinkets our mother had purchased from the
local opp shop. Why had this china cup been kept? Whose was it and how
long had it been in the family? There were so many bits and pieces put
away that we had no idea of the history of, and so generally didn't
keep. If my sister and I didn't know, there was no one left to ask. Other items at least one of us knew the stories of and we divided them up and carefully stored them away.
During the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, I decided to take a look at the various family treasures I have at home, gave the camera a workout and
photographed all the family items I have in my possession. Things like
a few items of jewellery, the figurines that belonged to my grandparents,
the painting my father was given when he retired, and the little shell
turtles I gave my grandmother after my first solo holiday when I was
16. Treasures that I cannot copy like I have photographs and documents, but should disaster strike I would at
least have photos of the items to keep. Once this was done, I decided to write down the stories of each item. Hopefully in the future the significance of these treasures will be remembered and they will be passed down and treasured as part of our family history.
Another item to treasure and pass down is the family recipe book, primarily created by my sister. One of the more fun jobs while we were cleaning out the family home was emptying out Mum's recipe drawer. While the drawer contained a few proper cooking books, and some complete magazines, it was primarily a combination of loose snippets torn or photocopied from old magazines and books, and hand-written recipes from who-knows-where. Many had notes written on them - things like substitutions of ingredients and notes on who particularly liked the dish. There were also a number of recipes written out by others and given to Mum - by several different friends and relatives, judging by the assorted handwriting. She even had a little A5 folder with hand-written favourites stored inside. When creating the book my sister and I kept all these notes and added our own - our memories of these dishes and when/how they were served. We both occasionally dip into these recipes and recreate one.
These are all things I hope will be passed down through future generations and treasured as I have treasured them, but the important thing is to keep the stories with each item so their significance will not be lost in the future.
