An Easy Way to Carry Your History Around

As we have been sheltering in place, many of us have used our house-bound time to tackle projects we never had time to do before: organize photo albums, rummage through all those cards and letters we’ve saved, straighten up drawers and re-arranging our jewelry boxes.

     With all these activities we are visiting the time before the virus. Looking over the things we have accumulated over our lives, we are re-visiting a life which right now seems distant to us. Our pieces of jewelry, as Meagan points out in our next Bijoux Bios post below, can especially serve as our “totems of memory.” 

     We are resuming our Bijou Bios offerings — stories about jewelry and how it affects our lives — with Meagan’s comments because we believe they especially resonate during this time of loss. Jaye Ann Terry interviewed Meagan — in the intimacy of her kitchen in Eastpoint, Florida, while she was preparing a meal — on April 21, 2019, long before anyone had heard of Covid-19. Yet the themes she touches upon are more poignant than ever in light of all the grandmothers and grandfathers, Papas and Nanas, abuelas and abuelos who have been taken by the deadly virus. 

     With every death, a history is passed on to the next generation. For Meagan, that history took the form of a jewelry box and pieces from her grandmothers jewelry collection. For everyone who has experienced a loss at this time, we hope they have something they can hold in their hands to remind them of their loved ones.

   Meagan’s remarks have been condensed and edited for clarity. We hope you enjoy her memories of her grandmother as much as we did.

    Meanwhile, remember to wash your hands frequently — even if it means that you have to take off your rings — temporarily! — to do it. And if you have a jewelry story to tell, please send it on to bijouxbios1@gmail.com. We strongly believe that stories are needed more than ever as a way to bind us in a common humanity as we globally fight this pandemic.

  

                                                                     — Jaye Anne Terry and Margo Hammond

                       JEWELRY: TOTEMS OF MEMORY

Whenever we would go to my grandmother’s house, she would get out her jewelry. My grandmother had pieces that ranged from very fine jewelry to costume jewelry. She had a love for jewelry, and I guess that got passed on to me. 

    When my grandmother passed away, I got her jewelry box. It is one of those boxes with little pull-out drawers and a flip top. When you open it the sides stack out. That’s probably what we really loved as children: watching how the jewelry box opened. It kind of smells like her, you know, and I just love to open it.

     It’s nice to have that, and also to have some of her pieces. I kind of get to experience again, her joie de vivre. Her love of life came through in her jewelry for sure. She liked bright things.

     When I was young, I went through a real minimal thing. I didn’t wear any jewelry at all. And then as I got older, I was like, well, I have all these beautiful things and jewelry is a nice way to express yourself sometimes. It’s also a way to remember people because a lot of my beautiful pieces of jewelry were gifts and when I wear those pieces I get to think of the people who gave them to me.

     So I think a lot of times a piece of jewelry is for me a little totem of memory, an easy way to connect with somebody that isn’t there.

     When my grandmother passed away, there was so much she left behind that reminded me of her. She had collections of all kinds of things, things we had interacted with all throughout our lives. But she lived in northern Maine and I lived in Florida, so I couldn’t carry away a piece of pottery but I could put some of her jewelry in my carry-on bag. 

      For me jewelry is important. It’s a way to connect with your history. It’s a really easy way to carry your history around.

Meagan

From her kitchen in Eastpoint, Florida