When you die, somebody's gotta throw your stuff away...

[jaybee]

My mom died 31 years ago. She was too young - I am currently several years older than she ever was.


As she died from complications of cancer, it was not a sudden thing. She had time to prepare.

She wrote a 'last' letter to each of her three children. It may sound strange, but it is not one of my 'cherished' possessions from my mom. I know that she wrote it to be a lasting copy of her hopes and dreams for her son. I had been married for about 2 years at the time of my moms death, so she wrote about my future with my wife and eventual family. That marriage ended in divorce. We didn't have any children.

My very crafty sister-in-law made me a shadow box as a Christmas present several years ago. It contains many of the small, ceramic figurines that my mom collected (she liked rabbits). Many were those that I had given to her over the years. It also had things like gift package tags - past presents from my mom to me - written by her. Every time I look at it, it makes my mom feel alive.

Funny how this material stuff can work.

[Bob Juch]

I was startled when the Rabbi's sermon yesterday evening was on this exact subject. (I confess that I checked out out the Bored on my iPhone during the sermon; hope the Rabbi didn't notice.)

He expounded on Exodus 16:32-34:

Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of Egypt.’” So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the Lord to be kept for the generations to come.” As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna with the tablets of the covenant law, so that it might be preserved.

The Rabbi was amazed that a plain jar of food had such a place of honor.

Then he described cleaning out his parents' house after they died. He kept some ordinary objects, worthless to anyone else, because they reminded him of his boyhood, or they belonged to his great-grandparents and provided a connection across generations.

On omer is a bit less than a gallon so that wasn't transported very easily.