I always knew my mom\u2019s things would cause problems\u2014not because they were valuable, but because they were pieces of her. She died when I was 12, and ever since, her jewelry, ring, and watch have been the only parts of her I could protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was 15, my dad gave me all her belongings after his girlfriend tried to steal some. Later, his sister tried too. I moved Mom\u2019s things to my grandparents\u2019 house for safekeeping and never regretted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years passed. Dad remarried, and his new wife, Rhoda, has two daughters. A few weeks before their wedding, Dad asked if I\u2019d give \u201ca few of Mom\u2019s things\u201d to them\u2014her Claddagh ring, wedding necklace, bracelet, even her wedding ring. Rhoda, he said, thought wearing it would make her feel like his \u201cone and only.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I said no. He didn\u2019t take it well. Then Rhoda called, dripping sweetness, asking what kind of \u201cdaughter\u201d or \u201csister\u201d I was being. I told her, \u201cYou\u2019re 38. I\u2019m 26. Let that sink in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On their wedding day, I showed up smiling and handed her a small gift box. She opened it eagerly. Inside were my mom\u2019s old cleaning rags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou wanted something of hers to feel part of the family,\u201d I said, smiling. \u201cHere you go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I walked out, proud\u2014knowing my mom would\u2019ve been too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I always knew my mom\u2019s things would cause problems\u2014not because they were valuable, but because they were pieces of her. She died when I was 12, and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":471,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11041,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11039\/revisions\/11041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}