Tuesday, 12 September 2017

Sentimentalities part 2

At the weekend my Mum brought over for me something very special indeed. I remember this being with my Gran all of the time since I was really really tiny. She would always wear it. I don't think she ever took it off - she wore it day and night and it was something very special to her.

It's this locket.
The outside still looks exactly as I remembered it from when she would wear it all the time. It's a bit grubby and looking slightly closer at it its actually bent across the middle but I think it's perfect. I really love it and can't believe that I have actually been given it.

Inside, I remember there was always a photo of my Grandad that she would hold so close to her. From what I remember it was always a lovely photo of him standing just outside their patio door at their house in his garden which he was always so immensely proud and fond of.

When I got the locket I have to admit I was ever so slightly disappointed as you could only vaguely make out the outline of my Grandad in the photo. It had acquired so many years and years of muck and dirt which formed a layer over the picture and made it difficult to make it out too well.
I could still tell that it was him and that it was definitely the photo that I remembered as you could still make out the patio door in the background but it seemed such a shame that it looked all scratched and scraped to pieces. Realistically it's almost impossible to even see that it is my Grandad in there if you didn't know that it were.

I know that it can't be helped and I was just pleased to have the locket to be honest. I guess it is lots of years old so I can't expect it to be perfect.

Just as I had put the locket away, my hubby had an idea that it might actually not be the photo that was damaged and that it might just be covered in a layer of the years and years of dirt and grime that it has probably gathered, especially as my Gran wasn't too well for a number of years before she passed away.

He asked if I wouldn't mind and I said that as long as I had the photo above, before he did anything with it, then I was happy for him to give it a gentle go at trying to clean up the picture a little bit. He actually used just a tiny amount of my facewash to clean it on some little cotton buds. It's fairly gentle so we hoped that it wouldn't damage the photo too much. After such a gentle clean, it has turned out pretty well. I couldn't quite believe the difference it had made when I saw it.
There he is! That's my Grandad!

I am so pleased with it. You can see that there is still some dirt around the edges but I would never be too sure with something of this age if that was all that was actually holding the photo in! I daren't clean too much off it for now. Maybe I will have another go some other time if I am feeling brave.

I have thought about cleaning up the outside too. I might give it a gentle clean as we have done with the photo but I don't want to clean it properly with silver polish or anything like that and make it look too good. I love that it looks a bit battered and well loved. It really was!

I'm so pleased now as well that it can be well loved again. I know that I probably will never actually wear it but I like that I have it and can look at it whenever I want to. It's got to be better than it being stuck in a box in someones loft and never being looked at or appreciated.

Do you have any family heirlooms that you have received or that you know will be passed on to you?  I would never wish to have any of these things as I never want to think of any of my friends or relatives not being around but I do love that in this instance I really have something very special to remember my Gran and my Grandad with.

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