Can you tell us about a family heirloom you have passed down?

One of my older sisters had a Bible that belonged to our paternal grandmother, and I have a daughter named after that grandmother.

After receiving the Bible in the mail, tonight I presented it to my daughter. My grandmother received it in 1909 from her mother when she was seventeen years old, and by coincidence, my daughter is seventeen.

The back binding is completely worn away, and my grandmother used simple masking tape to hold the front and back covers on. That tape is still there, though the glue has long since lost its ability to hold anything.

Thumbing through the treasure, we found pressed flowers, a Christmas card, and a torn page held in place by pieces of postage stamps. We also found a blank page on which my grandmother inscribed the birth dates of her husband and all her children in exquisite penmanship.

My grandmother died 37 years ago at the age of 84. I remember her cooking mostly, and occasional odors will wrench me back to her kitchen in the tiny house she lived in with its odd bathroom that had been added to the house well after its original construction.

There was a barn in back, which we emptied after her death. It blew down in a big wind not long after that. The contents had literally held it up for years.

The root cellar held jars of preserves that were 20 years old or older at the time. I kept some of the jars: an antique Folgers coffee jar with mountains silhouetted on the glass and the original paper wrapper still in place. There was also an antique Crisco jar with its paper wrapper, too.

Tonight, I feel my grandmother with me. Her Bible is now tucked safely in a chest with my daughter’s embroidery supplies.