Priceless

What was the first thing your spouse gave you? Most of us will look back to things like the first birthday gift or Christmas gift or a pin or ring indicating that you were going steady. Whether you know it or not, you would be wrong. My grandmother knew what the first thing her husband, my grandfather gave her, and when you know what it was you will find yourself as surprised as I was when I heard this story for the first time on Wednesday night when my mom, my sister, and I went out to visit my Aunt Bonnie.

I had never really thought of my grandmother as a hopeless romantic, but now I think she just might have been. I think too that she might have somehow known something that most girls of 17 years don’t know. She somehow knew that this man was the one…before she even went on one date with him. She must have, because that is the only way that she could have known that she wanted to keep the first thing he ever gave her. So what did she keep? You will be shocked. I know I was. The very first thing my grandfather gave my grandmother was…a stick of gum, and the thing she kept as a memento was the wrapper!! You had no idea, did you? Your best guess wasn’t even remotely close…was it?

It couldn’t have been, because that first thing your spouse gave you…the real first thing, is almost never remembered. I can’t tell you the first thing Bob ever gave me, even though there have been many cherished gifts he has given me. Still, looking at the amazing insight that my grandmother, as a young girl, somehow had, that she would keep a gum wrapper, because it came from the man that would be her husband someday, before she could have possibly known that…well that is amazing!!

Grandma kept the gum wrapper from the day she received it to the day she passed away, and then the cherished gum wrapper was passed, by luck of the draw to her youngest child, my Aunt Sandy, where it will continue to be a cherished keepsake. A keepsake more valuable than dimonds, rubies, or gold…because it is priceless!!