thank you for these thoughts. I have vivid memories of enjoying my mother's perfumes and jewelry box, gloves and rings and purses, all kept in drawers...I know she knew we liked to play in hers and my Dad's bedroom...once my younger brother and I were in there playing with some glow-in-the-dark crayons (their closet seemed to us the darkest place in the house to try them out in the daytime) and shut the door and could not get back out! We panicked and cried and she finally "rescued" us...

The bit about the old perfume bottles really got me; my mom had lots of those old Avon novelty bottles (worth a small fortune now as they are collectors' items) including a mermaid, etc. She also had some more expensive perfumes she "saved" for special occasions...over the years some of these started to smell pretty awful, although some still smelled the same. Nice to hear yours held out for a long time!

I guess that old story holds true: don't save things for a rainy day...use the good china, the good silver, for dinner once in a while...break out that bottle of vintage wine...wear those fragile beads...savor the perfumes...