Fearless Females - Prompt 6

In honor of National Women's History Month, I will be following the blogging prompts from The Accidental Genealogist blog. The prompts are interesting and I am truly enjoying this.  Here is day 6.

March 6 — Describe an heirloom you may have inherited from a female ancestor (wedding ring or other jewelry, china, clothing, etc.) If you don’t have any, then write about a specific object you remember from your mother or grandmother, or aunt (a scarf, a hat, cooking utensil, furniture, etc

Those of you that have been reading my blog probably know by now that I am a very sentimental person.  The things that mean the most to me have very little monetary value.

I don't really have any heirlooms, my parents had very little, they were so busy trying to raise eight children to accumulate much of anything.  What they passed down to their children was all about love and caring, and values.  My mother never wore a wedding ring, she didn't believe in wearing jewelry, it was a religious belief that she held very close to her.  

My older sisters may have some of her things.  I don't know that there was much left after she went to the nursing home.  She lived her last year there in a little room.  My mother was in the habit of giving things away her whole life.  She felt better when other people had things then when he had them herself.

I do have something that is very valuable to me.  It didn't cost much.  It was one of the last things she purchased.  It was purchased for my son when he was three years old. It is a stuffed animal, a dalmatian.   

She was out with my sister, they would go to the drug store to shop for a few things she needed in the nursing home.  It was about two months before she died.  She saw the little dalmatian puppy and she knew my baby loved the movie, "101 Dalmatians"  and she told my sister, "I need to get that for him for Christmas."  

During the next two months her health got worse, I don't think she got to do any more Christmas shopping.  She died on December 9, 1997.  

In January, I went to see my sister, and she said, "Oh, I have something for you, I forgot to give it to you".  She brought out the dalmatian and told me the story of Mom buying it.  She said she had been busy during the holidays and had totally forgotten it.  She had been grieving heavily over the loss of Mom.  She is the one who went to the nursing home everyday.  I lived a couple of hours away so I couldn't make it that often, but my sister never missed a day.

I took the dalmatian home and told my little boy that Grandma had bought it for him.  He still remembered her at that time.  Over the years his memories have slowly evaporated, now all he has is the impression of someone who loved him.  

The dalmatian has always been in his bedroom.  He never played with it, it was special.  I left the tag on it.  I don't really know why but I just never wanted to remove it.  The dalmatian will be 16 years old this fall.  My son is sentimental too, I'm sure this little stuffed animal will live with him forever.

This picture is Mom playing on the floor with my son when he was a few months old.  She always liked to get down on the floor with him.  She had a hard time getting back up, but she liked playing with him.  My oldest son is there with them.