Ring box containing baby teeth and hair on top of my keepsake box for Mum
Address in the ring box: Dawson & Briant, Goldsmiths & Watchmakers, 281 Kentish Town Rd, London, N.W.5.
Mum had a heart shaped, fabric covered ring box, and forever I've known about it. It contains mine and my sister's baby curls. Mine a dull blond, my sister's shiny with a reddish tinge. This precious box also holds two baby teeth wrapped in toilet tissue, the first teeth lost? Mum was not one for stories, of telling her/our past and we were scared to ask as much of the time she would become upset and silent, her eyes reddening, the atmosphere altered somehow. Her way of signalling the end of a conversation was to stare at the ever present TV.
When I open this box it feels incredibly precious. A woman in her late 30's kept the hair and teeth of her daughters, a symbolic and significant act. Was she a poetic soul? Moved by the love for her girls? One of our cousins talks of Mum being a joker and a laugh. As a child Linda would walk from Camden with the family dog Judy, meeting Mum every Friday on the Euston Road where she worked. Mum would take her to a toy shop on the way home, encouraging Linda to pick a toy and Mum would buy it for her. Sadly, my sister and I don't recognise this woman years before we were born, Mum suffered domestic abuse from our alcoholic and traumatised Dad, it's understandable she would lose herself during her married years. We knew Mum as anxious, a worrier and not much fun to be around, though in this she was doing her best. I always hid parts of myself, making sure I was the version she needed.
The ring box now lives within a larger box. A box I bought to contain selected belongings of Mum's, personal items that in the coming years will evoke her. This box contains:
1 x pair of black shoes
1 x turquoise fleece
2 x Damart tops
1 x M&Co embroidered shirt, Mum had shortened the sleeves, so her hand stitching is evident and makes me cry
The Epping Forest Guardian Newspaper containing her death notice
The Order of Service from her funeral
1 x M&Co hat, bought on our last trip to Loughton together
Glasses and case
Purse containing bus pass, bank cards, Morrisons card, VIP Taxi card, stamps, door key, an old £1 coin and a photo of my sister and I
Magnifying glass, that belonged to Dad
Old green comb
Wrist watch
2 x lipsticks, Smoked Peach and Pink in the Afternoon by Revlon
Spider's Web (tape), Francisco Yglesia plays the Paraguayan Harp, bought in Harlow
Letter opener
Fresh mint tictac's
Jessie's identity disc, our dog who died in 2005
Heart shaped ring box with baby hair and teeth
