Well Loved

Well Loved
Originally uploaded by Grey Cottage Studio

After my grandmother died, it took my family and I many visits to clean out her house. She lived there for 30 years, having never cleaned out everything from when her mother lived there and my father too. She had a five bedroom house and three of the bedrooms were known as the "junk rooms" because they were just filled to the doorway with stuff that she couldn't part with. When her cousin Vaughn died, much of Vaughn's things went into the junk rooms as well.

I loved trawling through those rooms. I would disappear for hours just treasure hunting and eventually trounce downstairs with gems for my grandmother to catalog and identify. I can even remember asking her if I could have certain things when she died.

Anyway, after she died we spent weeks cleaning it all out and we probably threw away much treasure with the trash just to get through it. I did save a chest filled with quilts that drew me in. Even at 23, I loved the idea that people had made them, that they had a history, a heritage and a connection to my grandmother.

Grandma never quilted. She was a knitter. And a collector. And I loved her fiercely and I still miss her all the time. Grandma Kingsley and her magical junk rooms.