It 's Only Stuff

By Author: STEPHANIE
Total Articles: 229
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Fortunately, the firefighters had arrived in lime to save the room containing many of our photo albums. When mother saw the albums, she was grateful that she had reacted a few weeks earlier to an inexplicable urge to move them from one room, now completely destroyed, to the only room left untouched by the bla/e.

But we had lost many sentimental items, such as our Christmas decorations. Mother had saved the homemade ornaments we children had made throughout grade school, and I had loved showing them to my own children each year.

Among the most treasured possessions were ten Christmas stockings, one for each of us, handmade by our now deceased' grandmother. Each stocking was among the first gifts she would give to her newest grandchild. Because I Audemar Piguet Replica Watches was the oldest in my family and one of the oldest grandchildren, I had often stood next to her, mesmerized", as she carefully is itched each stocking by hand. She decorated memo with felt shapes of trains, angels and my fax rile Christmas trees, which were ...
... covered with brightly covered ornaments.

One of my brothers was convinced'', against all reasons, that these special remembrances of Gram had survived the fiery blaze. He therefore searched carefully through mound111 after mound of ashes and burned-out blobs". Finally he found them — in a box under what remained of the basement stairwell. In the box was another treasure, remarkable untouched: our nativity set. The family rejoiced" at this discovery and said a prayer of gratitude.

None of this, though, was a match for what occurred on September 15, my parents' wedding anniversary. After church, they went out to the home site for a last look at the remains of their home. By now, it had been bulldozed", and a crew was coming soon to clear away the last traces of the building.

As my parents approached the site, which was still wet from a heavy rain the night before, both discovered something white on the sidewalk. My Audemar Piguet Replica mother gasped as she bent to pike up the object. It was the prayer hook she had carried down the passage thirty-eight years ago, to the day. And it was hone-dry. My father says an angel placed it there.

The fire had destroyed nearly all of the other material possessions my parents had ever owned. But as we reflected on the significance of the items that did survive the fire, we realized each one was symbolic. The wedding prayer book, for example, is tangible proof of my parents' spirituality and religious beliefs, which we, their children, now try to pass on to our children. And every Christmas, as we hang those ten stockings, now lightly browned around the edges, we are reminded of me grandmother who made them. Finally, the photographs help us all recall our youth and remember the importance of family.