Heirlooms

HEIRLOOMS IS ABOUT FAMILY LEGACIES.
     The sixteen chapters of Part One include photographs of the heirlooms and describe the role of cherished objects in Sharon´s family history, revealing the souls of those heirlooms and the values that influenced her life. These principles have served as a lifeline during her final four years as she faced the challenges of a hereditary illness on its path of increasing paralysis to death.

PART TWO IS TITLED THE FINAL HEIRLOOM, A.L.S.
     When her father was stricken with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ("Lou Gehrig´s Disease"), she knew of no family history of his disease. But five years after his death, Sharon was diagnosed with A.L.S. In Part Two she narrates the strange early symptoms, the diagnostic process, and her struggle to remain teaching. Sharon continues with a description of her life after leaving the classroom. Details of her physical decline are subordinate to those of rearranging priorities and meeting new challenges. Much of her story is told through letters that she wrote and some that she received. Four poems are integral parts of the context. Three are her own work. The other was written to her, and the author has given permission to include it.

FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE:
     "It has been four years since my diagnosis and three since I left teaching. My life has been full. I tell people that I have been having a lot of fun and accomplishing quite a bit for a dead person. Bulbar onset A.L.S. patients usually die at the shorter end of the two to five year prognosis. I was never a gambler, but I have beaten the odds on survival."

A Delicate Platter from a Rugged Past

A hundred year old china serving plate survives pioneer life in Sharon´s grandparents´ sod house on a homestead in Nebraska where the seeds of the family work ethic are planted.

Kitchenware

Old kitchen tools and serving pieces from Gramma´s kitchen remind us of the grueling work that was required to put a meal on the table for the family.

An Opalescent Vase And Gramma´s Lace

The dainty things fascinate Sharon as Gramma´s create delicate lace for her granddaughters´ hope chests.

The Patchwork Quilts

Gramma´s "crazy quilts" made with every salvaged scrap of fabric teach her lasting lesson of "Do not waste."

The Wine Crock

Grampa asks Sharon to pick all the dandelions in the lawn and a week later gives her a tiny glass of the resulting wine. Twenty years later, she makes dandelion wine in his crock. He tastes it, smiles, and asks her to keep the crock.

The Gift of Music

Sharon falls in love with a piano at her city grandparents´ home, and her Mom´s inheritance from them provides the money to buy one.

Mother´s Hope Chest

The hopes of the past, present and future fill Mother´s cedar chest to overflowing.

Mother´s Locket

Sharon unveils the piece of jewelry that symbolizes her Mother´s hidden heart, sharing glimpses of it, and describing the path to revealing her own.

The Ice Box and Canning Jars

Ice boxes and some old canning jars have become collectible, but there was no thought of that when relatives saved them long after they had outlived their usefulness. Those who survived the Great Depression retained such things in case there were more hard times ahead.

The Courting Letters

Evidence of George´s devotion to Aunt Sophia begins with these letters. He tests the waters of her feelings with all the charm of a teenage love story. But there is nothing childish about the beginnings of the love that would last for seventy years.

George´s Diary 1932-33

Uncle George spends part of 1932 and most of 1933 unemployed, noting his and other