a note from Minnie

I’ve been playing a lot of video games – as I may have mentioned – while I’ve been on break, but I’ve also been doing a little work around the house. Mostly organizing – I’ve seen too many episodes of Hoarders to be complacent in my basement.

Hmmm… that would make a good name for a band – “Complacent in the Basement”

Anyway, I came across a box of things that had been moved along with me for years, but rarely opened or gone through. One of the items was a tiny box – maybe two inches by three – made of wood with a hinged lid.

The box is empty except for a note taped to the inside of the lid.

“Wade, I hope you find this little cedar chest as handy as I have for keepsakes & what nots in your room. I’m sure you have seen it many times, and I would like you to have it in your room for keepsakes too. Love, Grandma Minnie,”
Minnie was my great-grandmother on my Dad’s side. She lived in a small house that shared a backyard with the old farm-house where we used to live when I was a kid.

Minnie was sweet and kind – always glad to see my sister and I in the yard or over at her house for fried apples and Barry Manilow on her record player. She kept a beautiful garden and we would find her there throughout the spring and summer.

I don’t remember exactly when she gave me this box, but I can hear her voice when I read the note she tucked inside it.

So, as I get ready to start off a new year, I think back a little to the sweet lady who was such a fixture in my life when I was very small.

Thank you, Grandma Minnie, for this empty little box.

Full of memories.