Cherished Items

1.My first bible. It is white and zippered with my name engraved in gold on it. It represents the greatest love I shall ever experience.

2.Old raggedy stuffed Cookie Monster, my daughter's first birthday gift.

3.Tiny white teddy bear dressed in black and white prison pjs. "Conbear" was mascot for inmates I transported from state to state for years.

4.Coffee cup with pic of myself at 3 with grandparents and parents. It reminds me of the love I grew up in and coffee shared from the time I was a small child with gramp and daddy until they died.

5.Beaded deer skin medicine bag. It carries those items that I have collected as Great Spirit whispered to me: mother earth from sacred caves, bark from a special tree, corn, bean, and squash seeds, a stone of turquoise, a dried cedar twig.

6.Pictures, old and new, of my family. Love, from generations past, exhibited in photos extending all the way to the infants that will carry family traditions and honor forward into the future.

7.A leather belt and buckle with Christ's picture on it. My sons did physical labor on a farm all summer one year to purchase this surprise for me. It is far too small now, but will forever be treasured.

8.Books...from my first set of Childcraft and World Book Encyclopedia to P. J. Parrish novels. My love of reading was fostered and nurtured by my daddy and P. J. Parrish's books remind me of treasured times in my living room floor with the author brainstorming.

9.Picture frame made by my brother-in-law from wood out of my grandparents old home where 15 children were raised during the depression. It symbolizes heritage, love, determination, and honor in a labor of love.

10.Painted gourd. The artist is a treasured friend who painted a scene of my childhood home complete with pastures, barns, dairy and beef cattle and horses.

11.Ceramic bread bowls made with earth from my grandfather and father's farm. I still own the old home and original land that was cleared by my great-grandfather with a crosscut saw.

12.Stuffed Bears. One is made from my mother's last Sunday dress. The othe made from daddy's last work clothes. Having them keep mama and daddy near me even after death.

13.An old Kodak Brownie camera my mother used for taking Easter Pictures of her three little girls dressed in matching lavender dresses with shinning black patent shoes. The pictures were developed and there was mama smiling big and proud as could be. She had been looking into the wrong part of the camera and took her own picture. The love in her face is worth more than any childhood picture of my sisters and me.

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