My mum had an aunt, Cordey (Cordelia Jane) who died about 3 weeks before I was born. She left me one and a half things. The one is a very nice Victorian cedar chest (or "hope chest" as they're called in my family). I keep all my best linens in it and part of the Thanksgiving atmosphere is opening that chest to retrieve the white table cloth and having that cedar scent billow out at you. The 'half' was her name. The Family had pretty well decided that I was to be named after her (if I turned out to be a girl). She heard about this and put her foot down; said that Jane was OK but she would NOT be responsible for saddling another generation with Cordelia. Which is a pitty, because I like Cordelia better than Jane (so don't mind the Welsh using 'Sian').

I also have a big meat platter from her household which made its way to me eventually. Garlands of gold and rust flowers, and big enough to hold a 10 pound turkey - so this too is regularly aired at Thanksgiving.

Both Mum's and Dad's own parents were too dirt-poor to have much to leave, as well as 8 children each side, and growing up in Canada I didn't have much contact with Dad's family in Wales, but Mum's family were just *fun* to be with, and that's meant a lot. Grampa died when I was real young ... but he sang a lot, mostly things which got censored by the family females before he got more than a couple of lines out. Party poopers!

Interesting to learn that Rick's Dad was THE Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy ...

Thanks for the memories, Jerry!

sian