What’s in Your Jewelry Box?

This Facebook memory popped up today from a post I made last year. It’s actually a memory from 38 years ago though, so I thought I would share it today on my blog. I think the majority of my Facebook friends know I plaster pictures and “short stories” about my husband all the time. I call him my love man on Facebook, and “my love” in real life, face-to-face. We will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary in 2 weeks.

After you read it, let me know in the comments what memories you have in your jewelry box that are priceless. Mine is simply a Ziploc bag of hair that a neurosurgeon shaved off my love man’s head 38 years ago before he did emergency brain surgery to save that then 18 year-old boy’s life.

This is a picture I posted on Facebook one year ago. Below is the caption I wrote, one of my many “short stories” that I frequently post on Facebook about my husband and our love.

Look closely! (I’ll try to be brief….) Sometimes I open my jewelry box and find all sorts of memories. This Ziploc bag is one such memory dating back to 1983. It has William’s hair that they had to shave off prior to the neurosurgeon doing an emergency craniotomy to remove a blood clot on his brain that saved his life. The bag was much fuller back then, but over the past 37 years the hair has clumped together and shriveled up to this. When we got married in 1986, William still had this bag, so that’s how I became the “proud owner” of it. We’ve moved several times since then, and I think this is my most “prized possession” because it serves as a permanent reminder (along with other reminders) of that horrendous day that God turned around for something good.

Look closely at the picture of William. It was taken a year later in 1984. All his hair had grown back by then of course. Can you see that scar in his forehead over his left eyebrow? That’s where the assault took place, blunt trauma to the head during a physical attack by someone who went to school with us. The scar has faded a bit, but it’s still there, yet another constant reminder of how his life was saved. What you can’t see is that ear-to-ear scar in his scalp underneath his hair. It’s still there too. I can see and feel it. Yes, another reminder of what happened in 1983 and how things could have gone catastrophically wrong.

Look at us… Our couple picture is from 1984 after we had been together for a year after high school graduation. (Pay no attention to my small waistline. I know it’s very distracting…LOL) Anyway, so this is what happened when I opened my jewelry box looking for something totally unrelated today. That Ziploc bag holding 37 year old dead hair led to a flood of emotions. Looking at that scar over his forehead a year later when it was much more prominent was reason for me to pause once again and decide to share yet another short story about that love man of mine.

William’s birthday is later this month. He will be 56. We are both 19 on this picture. What if that bag of hair was all that I had left of him? It is for reasons like this that I share my testimony of God’s amazing love and abundant blessings. #OurGodIsFaithful! He has truly blessed us beyond measure!

Leave a Reply