My Heirloom-y Piece Of Jewelry - Contest By Goldmatters

It started in 1951, which isn't a very heirloom-y year, since that was only 60 years ago.

I mean, if 1951 counts towards the heirloom effect, which is a phenomenon I just made up 3 seconds ago, then that makes my parents almost-heirlooms.

Which they might not be too happy about.

Hopefully, just this once, they can take one for the team.

I know that I have a piece of much older jewelry... that's DEFINITELY heirloom-y...but I can't remember the story behind the piece at the moment.

And since no one in the US will answer their phones to send me pictures or tell me stories...

... we'll have to settle for this "almost heirloom."

(In my grandma's defense... I don't think she knows how to answer my calls, haha)

I can't tell you what it's worth now vs. then, like @goldmatters did in his cool post.

Or @welshstacker did in his cool post.

I mean honestly, it's probably just cheap costume jewelry worth $10.

But to me, it's worth so much more.

My grandma and grandpa got married when they were both just 17 years old.

Funny thing is, she used to think he was annoying and couldn't stand to be around him.

But he gave her this necklace, so she obviously changed her mind and was like, "Ok, fine. I'll marry you."

My grandma grew up in an orphanage and didn't finish 8th grade, so she wasn't really bringing in any money.

My grandpa looked for odd jobs and found one about 9 hours from where they grew up, so they hitchhiked to Colorado because they didn't even have a car.

This necklace was one of the few items she took with her.

At 17, neither one of them had two pennies to rub together.

Which is why I know it's costume jewelry.

But I still think it's so pretty!

Here's a drawing of my grandma wearing it at their wedding:

The first time I saw the necklace, I was about 14 years old.

My mom showed it to me one night when we were just having "girl time" talking about old family stories.

She showed me the original box where the necklace was kept safely tucked away. It still had the date and a sweet message from my grandpa to my grandma on it.

For some reason, I was immediately OBSESSED with this necklace.

My grandpa died before I was born, and the necklace is one of maybe 3 things my family has from him.

I remember I wanted to wear it everywhere.

My mom "gave me the necklace" as a present when I was 16, but wouldn't let me keep the box (I have a tendency to lose things).

I 100% agreed she should keep the box, but I wore that thing all the time when I was in high school and college.

I'd wear it with t-shirts and sweatpants.

I convinced my friends to dress up to go to the movies, just so I'd have a reason to wear the poser heirloom necklace:

It's been spotted while making weird faces in obviously cropped photos (I must have not liked some dude who used to be in this picture or something):

It's been spotted while laughing at a friend's wedding, in a dress that was SO much bigger than a size 4 (that's another story for another day)

The last time I wore it was probably right before leaving for my Asia trip last year.

That one WOULD have been spotted in a bathrobe, but somehow I didn't think to take a picture.

Silly me.

I wore it with pajamas and bathroom at my grandma's house.

She looked a little sad while looking at it.

It definitely brought back memories for her.

I told her she should keep it again and I'll just have it later...you know...when she's not around to enjoy it...which I hope is forever and ever from now.

But, she said she shouldn't clasp it anyway, and she's happy I have it.

I know she is.

Because even though she looked a little sad...

...the memories also made her smile.

The End.

P.S. I'm tagging 3 friends, but it's kinda last minute because I'm a bad friend who didn't see this post until today. But I love the necklace so much, that I really wanted to write a post on the topic. Such a great idea @goldmatters.

I'd like to tag @macchiata @joannewong @see-it-feel-it to see if they have any heirloom jewelries.

It'd be fun to see heirlooms from other countries than the USA, so I tagged a bunch of non-US people!