Heirloom

This past weekend I was in a home with a framed tablecloth hanging on the wall as a large scale art installation in the dinning room.   The tablecloth was hand made in the 1700's by the homeowners humptenth great grandmother and passed down through the family since that time.  It was a special piece.  I enjoyed seeing the names and birth dates of the women who had cared for the item during their lifetime and then passed it along afterwards.

Seeing this epic heirloom made me think about my baby bed, which is currently sitting in my garage waiting to go back to my parents' storage building where it has rested for decades.  While my mother was pregnant with my brother her grandfather purchased the baby bed for my mother to use on his first greatgrandson.  My mother's grandfather died a few months before my brother was born.  But the baby bed is where my brother slept, I slept, and then I think it was loaned to our cousins for a few years too.

I intended to use the baby bed for my children, which is how it ended up in my house.  However, upon closer analysis - it was designed with the latest technology from 1978: a drop side crib -  I think we're going to pass on using the crib for our children.  Yes, I know my parents successfully reared two sons to adulthood and started them off in this baby bed, but my husband called it an antique death trap.

Since we're having twins my parents purchased one crib and dresser and my husband's parents purchased one crib and dresser for the nursery.  I realized the family heirloom isn't a piece of furniture, but rather it's a habit of providing the baby bed for the next generation.  I think that's equally as special.