Daddy was a union man

When I left London for Vancouver a year ago, I had to use an extra (as in, aside from the one I already had and a day pack) giant backpack stuffed to the brim in order to bring all the various things I'd accumulated with me. Despite this, there was still a box of some of the things most dear to me that I had to leave behind. It was mostly books and correspondence, and while I desperately wanted to take them with me I also desperately didn't want them to get damaged in anyway so I ended up leaving them with a friend who would bring them to Vancouver when she came to visit later that year.

Sadly that didn't happen, but she was recently able to send the box over and it was so very exciting to receive it! Obviously it was all my stuff, but it was like opening a present. I was reunited with old books bought at second hand bookstores on my travels and ones Richard had sent in care packages, there was even the copy of Franz Kafka's 'The Castle' that I'd found in Prague and the book of ee cummings poetry Richard had sent me when we'd first started dating. There were the cards we'd played with while training through Europe, chopsticks from dinner with Anna in Chinatown, a fan from when it was too hot in Barcelona and a flyer for 'Sunday Roasts and Records' at our favourite London pub. The best part was probably all the hand made cards Richard had sent, and a collage he had made for me while we were living so far apart. He is a clever boy, that one.

I am most definitely a hoarder, not to mention very nostalgic and a bit of a sentimentalist so I often find myself with these objects I cherish but don't really know what to do with. Some, like books obviously lend themselves to being used, but others I sometimes wonder if I just keep for the sake of keeping. Whenever I decide to hold on to something, my rationale is always that I would've loved to have had things like that of my parents' or grandparents' to play with and explore.

So, I've decided to start a glory box. It will possibly be for kids, or grandkids somewhere in the future to look through and also for Richard and I to reminisce over when we move from place to place and peek into the box of treasures.

So far it has....my wedding dress (that's the one you can see in the photo), my aunt's wedding dress, the fan from Spain and one my mum gave me on my wedding day, a few scarves from my collection, Richard's first union card and his grandfathers fob chain, the cards from Europe and a couple old wallets of mine. It's all held together in the box my Grandma used to gift us our wedding quilt. Quite perfect really.