A week or so ago, my brother sent me a box full of "mementos" he thought I would like to have, as the family house, in which he has lived for a while, has been sold.
Mementos have always been able to provide sharp images for me of the owner, the position of the item in the room, and who gave it to whom.
I wasn't feeling particularly strong emotionally that day but knew my brother would want to know I'd received the parcel, so I opened it and immediately was totally overcome by the items inside.
Many were pictures that had been up on various walls, others small glass birds and eggs, both of which my mother and I were drawn to. There were things I'd made for Mom and Dad years ago and other gifts we had given them. Touching these familiar items was magical.
Sean is a careful packer, and he'd included a fragile item wrapped in soft pink fabric, which when I saw it, brought me to tears. I can't remember a time when that cobalt blue swan wasn't perched on a table or shelf in the many houses we lived in. What I'd missed on first look though was that the glass swan was wrapped in my mother's bathrobe, which had been hanging on the bathroom door since she died ten years ago.
Even though it was too small for me I couldn't resist wearing it for the next couple of hours, and now it's hanging on our bathroom door.
