Heirlooms

I recently received a beautiful teacup from my cousins who thought I’d like a memento of their mother, my dear Aunt Gracie, who passed away last spring. The teacup reminded me that I had inherited two other lovely teacups from my Aunt Bib’s collection. (Aunt Bib was one of Gracie's older sisters.)

During one of the more exuberant phases of my sons’ development, I had packed away all the fragile objects in the house and stored them in the basement. I thought it might now be safe to take out the teacups. I opened the carefully labeled box and found … sunflower seeds? At some point, mice had raided our birdseed then set up housekeeping among the china. I pulled a wad of packing paper out of the box and dusted off the debris. Inside was Aunt Bib’s tiny porcelain mouse.