What to do with Grandma's treasures from the underground of the old house

Today, minimalism and ignorance are in vogue. Children and grandchildren mercilessly get rid of unnecessary junk that they got from the older generation. And in this very rubbish there is all life! I recently read a short story by Alice Atreidas from the collection Situevina. This story is about children who do not know what important family values are. To be honest, the story is sad. But it is worth reading for adults and children.



Important family values Alice Atreidas wrote the story “Once upon a time there was a woman” about loneliness in old age, about the indifference of children and the ignorance of grandchildren. She was naked. intergenerational relationship. It made me think about what is really important to modern people. Were people so cruel a couple of centuries ago? Or do we become hardened over time because values change and parents don’t pay enough attention to parenting?



“We bought a house in the village. A young couple sold it, they say, the parents do not need a dacha, and the grandmother died a year ago. We're asking if you're going to take things. They replied: Why do we need this rubbish, we took the icons, and you can throw the rest away. The husband looked at the walls where the squares of the icons were bright.



Relatives of the old woman did not even take photos from the walls. And then the heroine of the story remembered her grandmother and the role that photographs played in her life and in the lives of her granddaughters. Grandma looked at the pictures every morning: "Bow to parents, kiss my husband, smile to the children and wink to you - that's when the day begins."



“To me, these faded pictures are so valuable that if I had a choice of what to take, I would certainly take the photos.” And here they were not just left alone on the wall and in albums, but cynically recorded in junk. But the master is a master.



Letters from Grandma: After buying, we started cleaning and, you know, My hand didn't lift up to throw away this woman's things.She lived for her children and grandchildren, and they just abandoned her. How do I know that? She wrote them letters. At first I wrote and sent, without reply. And then she stopped sending and three neat piles of love and tenderness rested in the drawer. I'm sorry, I read... And I understood why she didn't send them. She was afraid that they would get lost, and here they are safe, she thought that after she left her life they would still read. And in the letters, there's a whole story: about her years of life in the war, about her parents, grandparents and great-great-great-great-grandparents - she retold what her grandmother told her. to live up to family values. So the kids can remember. How do you throw that away?



The girl wanted to take memorabilia to the children of the old woman, then the girl’s husband called the children to see if they needed letters that her grandmother wrote: “Oh, yes, throw everything away!” She sent us these letters in packets, we haven't even read them lately! She had nothing to do there, so she was having fun, the husband did not even listen, he dropped the phone. She said if she was standing next to her, she would strangle her!



The husband of the heroine was a writer, and she suggested that he shift letters to stories. Despite the fact that the children did not want to take the property, just in case, he took written permission to publish the letters of his grandmother.



Loneliness in old age, and in the meantime I got underground. You know, in the country houses, you go down from the hut and it's cool like a cellar. And there is a jar of pickles, jams ... And on each jar, a piece of paper is glued with a faded inscription: “The bathroom is his favorite goods” – Vanyatka died ten years ago, and a jar did not come in handy. “Salty cucumbers for Anatoly”, “Raspberry forest for Sashenka”...



Anna Lukyanovna passed away at the age of 93. She had 6 children. It so happened that the children were gone before her, except for the youngest daughter, who did not need all this junk. My mother had been waiting for her children for years. With love, I signed every rolled jar and hoped to see my grandchildren. But they were not up to the old man...



Relationships with relatives cannot be forced to love. But you can instill in your children and grandchildren those human values, without which children will grow up insensitive and cruel. A lot depends on the parents. Loneliness in old age is the result of wrong priorities. That 50 years ago, that now many parents believe that the child needs material goods. First and foremost, he needs attention. Instead of working two jobs for a bike for your son, go fishing with him on weekends, visit your grandmother in the village. And then in old age, your child will be by your side, and will take care of you as you took care of him as a child.