I was able to enjoy my time with that sweet gentle and deep thinking tower of a friend this weekend.. Saturday started late but it was nice to work by his side and watch and listen as he told the histories of things he kept... and things those stories helped to make the choice to let go even easier. He's a good friend and a good man. I was amazed at how sincerely grateful he was for my presence and desire to be there for and with him. Why wouldn't I? How could someone like me say "No," to someone I care for? I guess I did help in my own small way. The snow came down over the hours we took in relaxed work on boxing up, organizing.. and most of all just being together sharing. I imagine it was a big step for him to share how he lives with a woman... And he was right.. I'm not the kind of person to judge or assume anything. I value that trust.
Sunday I'd hoped to get things accomplished earlier, but lately I get very little sleep, and tend to just about pass out a few times during the day. My towering friend finally determined to help me go see my grandmother. He stayed there, by my side, or hers.. put up with her churchy sermons, and inappropriate honesty.. Guess I know where I get it *groanszzz* And, then she tooks us around her apartment overviewing her treasures. She sent him away with a rare and limited first edition antique book, and one on self healing. And both of us, like little children, went through her most precious polished agates crystals, petrified wood, and sea shells.. and filled plastic bags with them. He. with treasures to share with his daughters and son... his mother and who knows who else.. and myself.. in search of some to turn into pendants for sterling wirewrapped wearable art.. pendants. He was turning stones polished to a high gloss in his long thin fingers, up to the chandelier to view the sheer opulence of glowing agates from the Oregon coast. He was also bestowed with my grandmother's most treasured stone.. pulled from the satin lined box in a locked drawer in her study. *Funny old woman.* She asked him to watch over me.. I smiled and pictured him from our past together, looking easily over my head, resting a hand on my head, and and elbow on my shoulder. I'm short, and double stuffed compared to that lanky man. She also asked that he keep me safe from bad men hurting me again... ahhh, how she had been crushed to learn the not just my daughter had been , but me too, far too recently. She was referring to that. Gramma brought out a small manila envelope and played yer fingers over in and out, handling the contents she proceeded to lecture on responsibility, example self confidence, and ways to financial freedom and security. Of morality and purity and of life in gospel oriented religions.. Very preachy, yet, amazingly my friend tolerated that robust lecture. She handed two pinkly golden rings to me, placing them lovingly into my hand. One she told me would bring a good price once I sold it. I looked agog... And responded, it's a gift from you, why would I sell this? My maternal grandmother loves thick gold, and diamonds, she now wears no jewelry, so strange to see her once bejeweled hands bare of all her prized and stunning treasures. Mine, she pointedly mentioned, then looked into my friend's face is a wedding ring, yellow gold calla lillies with the largest cradling one perfect and stunning diamond within it. The other, she said, is for my daughter... It was her first diamond ring, the tiny sapphire long lost from it, It was an exquisite flower on a dainty stem. The band too delicate had been broken. But as I'd recalled her telling me of that choice for my damaged girl, I rejoiced. I'll be having a local jeweler repair the fine break, and set one of two perfectly faceted rubies I've had since I was 18, into that waiting open set. The first treasured diamond, for the first-born of the first-born.. of HER first-born. A gift from a great-grandmother and the mother of a miraculous woman.. who, though broken with a pain ravaged body, with love is healed, so too this ring. She asked me to contact my sisters, to have us go there together to make our choices as to what we'd like to take home with us. I've been denied already, all that I'd suggested I'd like, and ignored when I'd pointed out the one treasured print I'd love to have.. as the only prize I'd ask for. My friend later mentioned having studied it and thinking that would be perfect for D. Anyway... I stopped believing I was a part of my family long ago, but it was nice to have her choose some things to send home with me.
