Birthday present from Oma

My grandmother gives the strangest, most wonderful gifts. A birthday gift from her might consist of a small or large amount of cash, a thrift store find, a hand knit item, a family heirloom, a combination of the above or nothing at all.

The packaging might be a reused gift bag labeled with someone else's name, a plastic Safeway shopping bag or a small handmade paper box. (She requested I teach her how to make these boxes at a very inopportune time, the Saturday before my grade six solar system project was due. She's churned out thousands since.)

When I visited this week, Oma presented me with an assortment of gifts, including:

• three small knit ice skates with paperclip blades, to hang on the Christmas tree
• an Avon perfume sample
• two rolls of peppermints
• an orange beaded bracelet hand strung onto a piece of thread
• a pre-owned picture frame with a teddy bear holding a basket of cinnamon hearts
• a gold-coloured chain bracelet with a large clasp affixed to it
• a tiny set of wooden doll dishes from a trip to Costa Rica in the '80's

Oma never gives an explanation for a gift. It's up to me to do the digging.

Thinking the orange bracelet a find at the church bazaar, but suspecting it might be more, I asked her hopefully, "Was this bracelet yours, Oma?"

"Yes."

"How old were you when you got it?"

"Sixteen." She's eighty-six. She told me that her mother wore a necklace of the same beads. Oma and her siblings admired the necklace so much that her mother eventually turned it into bracelets. She made two larger ones for Oma's sisters and eked out a small third one for Oma, the youngest.

Turning to another present, a gold-coloured contraption clipped onto the handle of a gift bag, I asked her, "What's this for?"

"So you don't lose your gloves. When you take them off when you go into church or a store, you clip them onto the bracelet."

"And was this yours?"

"Yes."

"When did you get it?"

"A year or two after I married Opa [1947]. I kept losing my gloves so I bought that for myself."

Oma doesn't volunteer these stories, and seems surprised but pleased that I'm so interested. It horrifies me that she mixes jewelry from her youth in with the other miscellany and says nothing to alert me to its significance.

She has no idea how much I treasure the gifts and the stories that come with them.

Comments

[Mary Smith]

I was just visiting my soon to be ninety-seven Grandma today and I know what you mean about treasuring the stories. She grew up on a farm and I told her that I recently visited a farm. Then I asked her what her favourite farm memory was, hoping for some wonderful nostalgia, and she said, "we did lots and lots of dishes!!"

[slydi]

i'm green with envy! if that bracelet fits you, i am going to come over and wrestle you for it. take that as a warning.

love love this post! i am actually a bit choked up (not choked, though i will be if that bracelet fits), believe it or not.

thank-you for sharing!

[Angela]

Ohhhh....sooo heartwarming!!! And your Oma is sooo CUTE too=0)

[Susan]

That's bloedkoraal (blood coral) and is very very traditional here in the Netherlands, many children wear a bracelet like this! People used to believe that it would ward off evil by children, but nowadays it's just traditional, something you get when you are very young.

Love the gold clasp and the fraying thread. Treat it well!

[Martina]

Thanks for the info, Susan. Pete thought it was plastic (the beads aren't uniform and he was commenting on how the process must have been different back then), and I thought it was ceramic. But I looked up blood coral and you're right, that's what it is.

Maybe I should post a picture of everything Oma gave me - who knows what else I've missed.

[celeste]

My Grandmother often gave me a new pair of crocheted slippers in whatever color of phentex that was currently on sale. On my birthday I sometimes received a pak of panty hose.
A couple of years before she passed away she gave me a plastic white & red heart shaped ring, the kind you might find in one of those machines you slug a quarter into.
Since she has passed away, I cannot bring myself to give it up. It sits along my great grandmothers pearl necklace (that needs restringing).

[R]

My sister recommended your blog, I have to say, that was a beautiful story! I'm sitting here in front of my office desk right now and I'm feeling a little teary! Goodness, I should only read this stuff at home. :)