Monday, May 21, 2012

A special gift years in the making....

Our beloved Grandmother who we called Nonna (Italian for grandmother) passed away Dec 2006.  It was a Saturday and I was out of town with no cell phone service.  I saw her on that Thursday but had spent pretty much every weekend with her when we found out she was sick.  My cousin Jen was up from GA and got to hold her as she went with the angels to a better place.

The months following we were tasked with cleaning out her house, getting it ready for the market when I opened the jumbled mess of her jewelry box (now in a zip lock bag).  Her nursing pin that every nurse receives at graduation was in that mess.  I put it aside along with a few other pieces that I had always treasured.   A few years later my cousin decided it was time to go back to college to become an RN.  I knew instantly this had to be her graduation gift.  She has asked me numerous times if I ever found this pin...I have been lying to her for years.  

This gift was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. 

Finally graduation day came and my family of 4 drove down to GA with this in the back...


That's our Nonna in 1947 on her graduation day.  And that in the white frame is her pin from her Nursing School in Wheeling WV.

Here is a close up of that pin...

To say Jen was shocked was an understatement.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house.  It was truly priceless!  I was bringing Nonna to her graduation.

I'm not sure how among the blubbering I got this picture.  I was crying so hard before she even got to open it my husband had to step in and tell her that Nonna wanted her to have something.


Isn't she just crazy beautiful!  I see a layout with this picture in my future :)  Congrats Jen!  I love you bunches!
xoxo
-M

4 comments:

  1. This is just so touching and why I love scrapbooking so much! The memories we share are priceless! Beautiful gift!

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  2. What a truly meaningful layout, and special picture! I love how you captured such a special moment.

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  3. What an absolutely wonderful gift!!

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