a little somethin'

Each year, around this time, I always get this overwhelming feeling to write down a memory of of my Nana. With each passing year it becomes more difficult to do so. So, in order to hold onto as much of her memory as I can, I share a simple story:

There was a tattered cardboard box of toys that took refuge behind her cadet blue love sofa. Filled with clip on pearl earrings, strings of plastic beads that became makeshift necklaces, plastic jelly bracelets and other odd ends. I can remember taking the box from behind the sofa and carrying it to the middle of her living room floor, dumping it out into a nice colorful mound and putting on every piece of fake jewelry. It didn't matter that I was already wearing two pairs of clip on earrings...another two pairs would make it that much classier. It also didn't matter that once I had completely adorned myself in this jeweled mess, I would quickly shake it all off from the massive amounts of sugar intake from the Lemonheads that I had popped into my mouth over the course of the day. Within an hour, the once beautifully colored mound of plastic junk jewelry would become a scattered mess upon the floor of my 90 year old Nana's living room. She never scolded or frowned but simply smiled and said: "time to pick up".