Among my Souvenirs

In the great film To Killl a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch’s children keep an old cigar box filled with small gifts from their neighbor Boo Radley. The box is a trove of delights which includes carved soap dolls, marbles…an ancient timepiece. A child’s piano tinkles in the background as the children’s small fingers touch their dreams and hopes. It makes my eyes mist…

I knew a man for a short time who had great arms. Naturally, he gave the greatest hugs. They were full hugs with arms I could never wiggle free from because they were so strong. I really felt that nothing bad could happen while I was encased by him. He was a helper and he hugged me a lot after my mother died. I could say that those embraces are among my souvenirs.

My maternal grandmother was dear…whenever we spent time together she would always search for a “keepsake” to take home so that I would have something to remember my day with her. It was easy at the movies because so many theaters had small postcards at the counter with the name of the movie and a picture to go with it. Other times while we were out shopping, she would find little somethings to give me. I especially remember a small silk flower handed out from a basket at a perfume counter. I loved the way she threw around the word “keepsake” like it was something really nice. I even liked the way the word sounded – “to keep something…just for the sake of it”.  I learned to bring her keepsakes too like a saint’s medal from a cathedral when I went to Canada in the fifth grade. Whenever I hear the word “keepsake”, I think of her and sadly, like “souvenir”, it’s a word we don’t hear very often anymore. I no longer have all those special tokens but the thought of them are part of my personal souvenirs.

How lucky we are when a friend or acquaintance gives us exactly what we need at the moment. I’m thinking of the friend who came to my house on a winter night with my daughter’s medicine because I couldn’t take my baby out of her crib to drive to the drugstore. Or the friend who did my laundry every week when I sprained my ankle and couldn’t get to the laundry mat. Later, she gifted me her washer dryer set and her husband installed it in my apartment. It lasted for years. What’s more is that these save-the-day things were done without asking. It was magic.

There are more too…much more from sisters, close friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and some very rare but very good bosses.

The keepsakes of life… little acts, warm embraces, the bespoke gifts all mean so much to me and I remember every single one. They may not be stored in a hat box on the top shelf of the closet or in a wooden box under the bed but they are all among my souvenirs…