Heirlooms #52ancestors52weeks

Aunt Ett’s Box

“I’m sitting on the box!” is heard throughout the house at any family gathering. It is the right of the youngest child to sit on the box. There they can then be at table height and join in the family meal.

The box at the end of the table once belonged to Aunt Ett. A wooden trunk given to my mother by her great aunt, Esther GOULD (NOSWORTHY). When the family moved to Lucindale Aunt Ett carried her possessions in the trunk. The trunk was used when she worked in small country schools in the South East. It went with her when she married. The trunk is a stark reminder of her. A small woman always dressed in black, who commanded the room even when she went blind and deaf in her old age.

No longer dark and dingy it hides the family treasures. Aunt Ett’s photo albums of family portraits and holiday snaps. The names of many in the photos are lost in the mist of time. An old perfume bottle still in its packaging. A nightgown from the early 1900’s.

Other treasures have been added. The precious dolls of our childhood. My brother’s teddy bear. Newspaper cuttings collected by my mother. Outfits from special occasions, that smell of camphor. The extra special Christmas decorations.

Aunt Ett’s box is a treasure trove, just waiting to be explored. Snippets of our lives can be found within the trunk. Treasures for the next generations to wonder at.

This article was written originally as a writing exercise for the Family Hsitory Writing Course completed as a part of the Diploma of Family History, UTAS.

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