The Locket

Doug's dad contacted Meg recently to ask her if she had Jeanette's locket from their trip to Alaska many years ago. That seemed strange to me as he knew that Jeanette had given Doug and I the locket several years before she died after telling us the story about panning for gold on their last vacation with Grandma Brucker.  Although she didn't wear the locket often, she did have fond memories of that trip with her mother. 

I hadn't heard Carl mention the locket in years. He had alluded to me several times before we moved to Ocala that it was very valuable, but I knew that the flakes of gold were worthless. I had already asked our jeweler if it was something that I should have insured, but she told me that although it was a great keepsake of Jeanette's trip, it had no monetary value.  Maybe Carl just wanted to know if one of her grandchildren had it, but I was more afraid that he was going to ask for it back. Since Jeanette's intention was for us to keep it for her grandchildren, I had never contemplated giving it back to him.

I did take a picture of the locket today in case Carl texted us about it, but we never heard anything, so I put it back in Grandma Guard's jewelry box with other memory pieces from both sides of our families. That way if any of our children want to see their grandparents' jewelry, I will be able to share it with them.  I have learned over the years that I can't keep everything, but I can hold on to the memories of others that were "priceless" to them.