What family memento do you cherish and why?   This is the blog prompt for Folk Magazine for the week of February 9th....I can think of a number of things I inherited when my mother passed away that I am very fond of. There is a large salt glazed piece of pottery that was originally my grandmother's and when we were children my mother kept the old bags she brought home from the grocery store in it, to be used over again. At some point my father made a wooden lid with an old porcelain handle on it to cover the pot because the family dog was fond of sticking a nose in there and spreading the bags all over the house.
    Then there is a the old iron doorstop that has some sort of  terrier on the front of it. Nice and heavy, it currently holds the kitchen pantry door open for me. But the thing I cherish the most, isn't really as much family related as it is a token of  my mother. When I was in my very early 20's I bought my mother a ring with 3 garnets on it for her birthday. Her birthday was in March, but mine, you see was in January. Hence the garnet was my birthstone and I thought it would be a great mother's gift to have her oldest child's birthstone on her ring. She loved it and wore it all the time. When she passed away I inherited it and I wear it, probably not as much as I should but I am hard on rings, being in the antique business. No matter, when ever I do wear it I can't help but think of my mom. And miss her and the laughs we would share and the gardening stories we would try to out do each other with. Miss you mom, think of you all the time and send you hugs up there in heaven.