Tiny memories

My grandmother, who I called Maw Maw, was an amazing woman.  For one thing she raised my mother to be a very kind caring person that I deeply respect.  But one of the most amazing things about her is how she prepared for the end of her life.  Several short years before she left this world she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  At that time she was living in a small country house still taking care of one of my Aunts that was mentally challenged.  Her daughter was youthful minded and sweet as could be but had little experience with the world.  So, in the wisdom of my grandmother's years, she moved herself and my aunt to a care facility to get her used to being in a less protected environment. 

In her preparations, she labeled and gave away most all her earthly possessions.  She gave me her treadle sewing machine (which she was still using) and my grandfather's razor strap with the straight razor he used.  The sewing machine had been painted in an ugly 1970's avocado green and sat in my garage gathering dust for the last 25 or so years.

This past fall I began a renovating and redecorating project preparing our house for the market.  The guest bedroom was first.  There are new wood floors, new crown molding and antique (ish) furnishings.  My hubs helped me pull out the old treadle machine for the room.  After attempting unsuccessfully to strip the ugly green off, I settled on repainting it an antique white, which I love.  But really, the best part of this project was finding the treasures and tiny memories left as they were from my grandmother.  A handful of buttons she salvaged from my grandfathers worn out shirts, two thimbles I've seen her use while piecing quilts, her scissors, several spools of thread, an old screwdriver she must have used to keep the machine in good repair, extra machine parts, some lace and several other things.  I love those little memory things and am grateful to have discovered them.  Like I said, she was an amazing woman and I miss her.

I posted a photo in today's photo challenge.  You can see it on the April photo tab up top.

PS.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my post.  Feel free to leave me a message of a tiny memory you'd like to share.