Gift

 

Tomorrow I will give this bracelet to my goddaughter, E..  It was a birthday present to me when I was seven.  E. had her first birthday a few weeks ago.  It'll be a while before she can wear it, and who knows where I'll be then?  Most of the charms are from my childhood, except for the hummingbird on the far right and the tag that's under mine, which has my goddaughter's name and date of birth.  The jeweler cleaned the bracelet a few weeks ago and attached the new charms, changed the clasp and engraved a new tag.  I had him put the tab on the same link as my old one, so that the newer tag would cover the old one.

When the bracelet was given to me, the charms were things that already made sense in my life:  Mistress Mary Quite Contrary, the swimmer, the cat, thimble and scissors (even then I was making things out of fabric and thread), and the rollerskates.  The people in the jewelry store were very excited to clean and repair the bracelet and to add the hummingbird and the tag.  

It will be several years before I know if E. likes the bracelet, but her mom, S., is very excited.  Last week S. took E. to visit her birth mother and sent some photos.  The pictures show a very pretty woman holding E., with the two of them looking into each other's eyes.  S. says the birth mother is at peace with her decision to let S. and her husband adopt E.  I wonder how it will all feel to E. when she is older, how E. will define family, how all the links in the chain will fit together.

Comments

[Roy]

What a great present for Baby E. She's a lucky girl.

This post made me smile - and think.

Thank you Mary for both.