Be still my heart...



I was looking for something last night and as usual got sidetracked by finding things I had forgotten about.

When I was little, Daddy would walk us uptown to the little stores that graced Main Street and let us pick out Mommy's Mother's Day gifts. One year we picked her out a little heart pin with "rubies" and "pearls" at least in our mind they were. Then another year we found this little pin with Mother on it. A few years ago, I was at Mom's and was borrowing earrings and found these in her jewelry box. I was touched that she still had them after all these years. She tole me to take them home with me so I could have them whenever something happened to her. So they are in what my grandkids call the treasure box.

In that same box was a heart and key that I got one year for Christmas. We were around 10 or 12 and had just started wearing jewelry. I love the little baby blue stones.

This little red felt heart was in the treasure chest. It was on a wire inside the flowers that Hubby bought me our first Valentine's day when we were dating. It was also the day he proposed. We joke about how romantic the evening was because we went to dinner and a movie. The movie was 9-5 with Dolly Parton and dinner was at Mycroft's where we had bacon and cheese croissants. My ribs had been hurting all day and after the movie we ended up in the emergency room because of the pain. I had pulled something and caused bruising in the muscles around my ribs.  The little heart pendants are the various hearts he has bought me for Valentine's day over the years. One was ruby and diamond, one was diamonds and one was my birthstone.

I also found this little gold heart locket which was the very first heart locket he ever bought me. We had just been married about a year when he bought this. The bigger heart is from Things Remembered and was on a key chain he got me for Christmas one year. It has my BKK initials on it. The ring broke off and it is a little tarnished but it is still special to me.

He bought me this a couple of years ago in a little religious shop in Dollywood. It is GOD in a heart so that I can always keep God in my heart.

All the other hearts above evoke such precious memories. But this one actually brings bittersweet memories of my precious K.C. (short for Kitty Kat). It was her ID tag from when she got her shots. We adopted K.C. when she was barely 6 weeks old. She had been abused and battered and was living in the local animal shelter. She didn't bounce and play like most kittens. She just hunkered back in a corner and looked at us with those big sad eyes. We both said "She's the one" and brought her home. From day one, that precious little kitten was a snuggler. She layed on my lap every night and watched TV with me. If I laid on the couch, she laid right beside me. She took every step I took and if I was gone for a few days on a trip, she would barely eat till I got home. She was my baby. She never went outside except to sit in the swing with me or to walk on the patio. She would never venture to the grass. When she was 17, she started having trouble with her bladder and I took her to the vet. The news was not good. She was going through severe kidney failure and there was nothing they could do for her. I had to take that precious little baby back to the vet after I got the news and have them put her quietly to sleep. She never ever went to strangers and especially men. But when I went back and the doctor to her to take care of it, she just went right to him and snuggle down in his arms as if she knew her pain would soon end. I said goodbye through eyes blinded with tears, knowing I would never lay on the couch and feel her snuggled up against me again. She has been gone 4 years come August and I still set here and type this with tears in my eyes. I always laughed at people who got attached to animals until K.C. came into my life. I will never own another animal. I wouldn't trade my time with her for anything, but I will never go through that pain again.