Ever since I was a kid, I've loved trunks.  Don't know what it is about them, but I find them mysterious and irrestible.  I always get lured to try and discover that mystery.  Perhaps it's because they've been to far-away places, maybe exotic places, or possibly locations that one would want to escape from.  Years ago trunks were the luggage that people used when traveling.  A far cry from our generic rolling ones of today.  When my Polish grandmother arrived in this country in 1908, unfortunately, she didn't have a trunk with her.  She carried all of her worldly possessions in a pillowcase.  It turned out to be quite special and that deserves a blog of it's own some day.  But today my topic is trunks and the one I came to acquire.

I am now the owner of the above trunk which I have in my tv room.  And here's some background on it......My aunt had a very close and good friend, Grace Rooney.  Grace and her sister, Mary, came to this country from Ireland in the mid to late 1800's.  They settled in Salem, Massachusetts.  Neither one ever married.  Grace had a management position with the City of Salem and her sister was an RN.  I really grew up knowing Grace but actually never met Mary.  Any party, gathering, bbq, or holiday my aunt always invited Grace.  She was just part of our family.  I'm sure because Grace was single with no children (and by then Mary had passed away) my aunt never wanted her to be alone.  A tall, slim, woman, I recall she had a wonderful sense of humor.  Always laughing and telling jokes and it was obvious she loved being included in our family gatherings.  In her older age it reached a point where she went to reside at a local nursing home and my aunt visited her faithfully.  When Grace passed on, in her early 80's, my aunt inherited all of Grace's belongings. 

My aunt and uncle also had no children (she's my mom's sister) and when my uncle passed away in Nov. of '03, Ray and I went to Salem for the funeral, secured her house there and brought her back to Florida to live with us.  My aunt was failing and wasn't able to return to Salem that spring to clean out her house of 50 years and put it up for sale.  Since I'm her Power of Attorney, it became my job to do this.  It was probably one of the toughest things I've ever had to do....both emotionally and physically.  I was up there for 3 weeks and Ray stayed down here with my aunt.  She was fine alone at our house during the day while he was at work at that point. 

She had one of those typical 3 story New England type homes.....living room, dining room and kitchen on the first floor, 2 bedrooms, bath and den on the second floor, a full attic, a full garage and a full cellar.  My aunt had owned her own beauty salon for close to 50 years in that cellar.  The shampoo bowl, dryers, etc. were still there.  Yup....I had my work cut out for me.  My daughter in Billerica came to help as much as she could and my son, Brian who was living in NJ at the time came for 3 nights to help me......I don't lose it often, but I think they both thought Mom was about ready to go over the edge.  By the second week, I was overwhelmed!  There was SO much stuff.....and every single drawer, cabinet, closet, etc. had to be carefully gone through.  What to keep, what to throw away, what to donate and give away, what to sell to the antique dealers.  I did the best I could.  I also had to arrange for a mover, as a lot of her furniture, etc. was coming to Florida to her new home with us.  There was crystal, china, all kinds of pieces that she'd collected from traveling the world with my uncle.  And the clothes.....now I KNEW why they called her THEE best-dressed woman in Salem.  The attic was filled with shoe boxes, clothes hanging in garment bags and this was in addition to 3 other closets packed to capacity.  Leather coats, suede coats, fur coats.....it went on and on.  Talk about a walk down memory lane.  But on the second day that Brian was with me, as we fought cobwebs and dust in the attic, and made our way through piles of clothes, books, anything and everything....there....way back in the far corner of the attic......my eyes spied the trunk!  It looked old, I knew it was old and my heart skipped a beat......it was love at first sight....and I wanted it!  With Brian's help, somehow we got this trunk down 3 flights of twisty, steep, stairs and it made it's way to Florida on the moving van. 

On the side of it, painted in fading red it read, "Mary Rooney."  On the bottom was a tag that I think says 1898 and a place in Ireland that it was coming from.  It's SO heavy, I haven't looked at the bottom in awhile.  So this is the trunk that Mary and Grace brought with them from Ireland to Salem.  I remember bits and pieces of the stories that Grace would tell us.  And what was in the trunk?  Well, nothing that most people would be interested in.....but, I sure was.  Documents, all kinds of papers, an old Palmer Handwriting course that Mary had taken at some time in her life.....lots of mementos that she accumulated over her lifetime in America.  I was enthralled!  I left that stuff and then added more to fill it up for the trip to Florida.  The latch in the middle was never locked......because "I" don't have a key for it.  HOWever, when we moved to Cedar Key 16 months ago, I stupidly (without thinking) closed that latch before it went on the moving truck!  I was heartbroken, because so many memories were inside and I didn't think I'd ever see them again.  Some were Mary's, some Grace's and some are my aunt's.  I mentioned this to Ray the other day.....how I'd love to get back inside that trunk, but I don't want to ruin the latch.....and voila!  He was able to get it open for me and this is what it looked like inside.

A lot of the stuff on top was my aunts....knitting books, some yarns, etc....that I just put in there for the move to Florida.  But underneath....underneath is where many treasures are.  At least I consider them treasures.....Things that belonged to Grace and Mary.  I like to think they'd be very happy to know that I now own this trunk.....they had no children or family that would appreciate their lives or what they left behind.  But I do.  Many of the papers, documents, letters, etc. is a part of who they were.  I think it's very sad when somebody passes on and somehow they're forgotten.  So next week, after I get things squared away in my house, I plan to curl up next to this trunk and take another walk back to the past.  And since I have a scanner, anything I feel that might be interesting, humorous or unique......I'll share it here with you in another blog.

Enjoy your Tuesday and I'll see you tomorrow......