From toddler to teenager, I lived with my family lived at 19 Routh Road, a substantial six-bedroom Victorian semi-detached house backing onto Wandsworth Common.
Ah, there's a parallel universe of oak chests in families. Our oak chest started out as the "glory box" holding the blankets and bedsheets that my mother had worked hard to purchase as a teenager, in preparation for marriage. And it was the family's blanket box for some 70 years. It stood in the large entry hallway of my childhood home: a reminder of how things started out for us, and the value of perseverance.
After Mum's death, the oak chest went to my brother. He repurposed it as a treasure chest, filled with photo albums and other extended-family memorabilia. Now it's with me.
Ah, there's a parallel universe of oak chests in families. Our oak chest started out as the "glory box" holding the blankets and bedsheets that my mother had worked hard to purchase as a teenager, in preparation for marriage. And it was the family's blanket box for some 70 years. It stood in the large entry hallway of my childhood home: a reminder of how things started out for us, and the value of perseverance.
After Mum's death, the oak chest went to my brother. He repurposed it as a treasure chest, filled with photo albums and other extended-family memorabilia. Now it's with me.
Heirlooms help us weave our lives.