Jewelry My Grandmother Loved #atozchallenge

Jewelry is one of those things that most of us enjoy wearing. Yes, I do mean men and women. Some of us like costume jewelry and some of us like strictly diamonds. Others of us are just ok with a mixture of both.

My Grandmother coveted her jewelry like I covet my books. She had drawers full. I kid you not!
Every piece she ever owned was in the original box it was given or bought in. Grandma also knew where every piece came from including who gave it to her and dates given. As I said she coveted the pieces no matter how large or small.

There was reason for this though. My Grandma grew up during the depression era and was not the oldest of her siblings which was mostly sisters. Her clothes were made and if there was jewelry, it belonged to her Mother, or it was her wedding ring given by my Grandfather. She only had two dresses for years.

Jewelry was only truly collected after my Grandparents married at 18 years old. Then it was collected along with shoes, purses, and clothes. Even into her very old age she still wore costume jewelry. She always matched her jewelry with her outfits...earrings, necklaces and sometimes rings.

When she passed away in 2011, it was of course a given that my Mother being the only girl would receive all her jewelry. My Grandmother though made sure of it! In the will left by my Grandmother, was an extra small piece of paper that had been notarized and written in my Grandmother's hand. The paper said simply that all of her jewelry would go to my Mother!

Grandma knew that her jewelry might be an issue among some family members and she made sure it wasn't. What a hoot she was! Needless to say, my Mother inherited the boxes and boxes. I will inherit all of it after my Mom's passing.

The wonderful thing though my Mother did was went through much of Grandma's jewelry and selected a piece or two  for each of my girl cousins, nieces and Great-grandchildren. She wrapped it up and gave it to them for Christmas that same year of her passing.

I was allowed to pick my own piece and it was the bracelet that you see above. The photo does not do it justice as it is pearl-ish inlaid in gold.

I am not a cove-tor of jewelry like my Grandma, in fact, I wear very little and I could not tell you where most of my jewelry that I do have came from. This piece though, I can and it is very special to me. It will always be taken care of along with a wonderful story to tell of how I received it.

Do you have a piece you love? Tell me about it.