Tante’s Treasures

Every hundred years or so I inspect the outside of my refrigerator, which looks like a high school girl’s locker: stickers, cards, magnets, cut-outs and the like, and think, “I really should get rid of some of this stuff.” (I won’t get into how often I clean the inside of the fridge; that’s just embarrassing.)

There’s a list of all the “honey-do” jobs I have to do myself since I’m the “Honey” in question. It’s not so fun to make a list when I’m the schlub doing the work.

There’s the dog poison control contact info, in case I do something stupid like feed one of my dogs grapes as a treat (not that that’s ever happened before).

There’s also the human poison control number, in case I do something stupid like eat my own cooking.

There’s a “Pray More & Worry Less” sticker that I rarely heed, to my detriment. There’s also a magnet with a convicting quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Does it help that I do at least 3 things every day that scare me? Sometimes just getting out of bed is scary enough.

There’s around twenty magnets ranging from Holland, Germany, England, Cayman Islands, Seabrook Island (which I can’t ever remember going to; must have been during my drinking days) and a variety of chip clips.

There’s a bumper magnet that I had on my car for a while: I <HEART> MY DOGS.

There’s a picture of the back of Alfie’s head where I thought he looked like Batman, and if you have a dog that looks like Batman, you gotta flaunt it.

There’s a postcard from my friend Becky during her stint in Alaska a few years back. Becky has always been good about sending me postcards from all her trips around the world so I can live vicariously.

Speaking of postcards, there’s one from my boss Chris back when he went to the Vatican and sent me a postcard with a Pope Benedict stamp. That was really cool.

There’s a signed postcard, speaking of more postcards, from Johnny Depp that my sister got me during my Depp years.

There is also a handmade Tante magnet from my nieces that they broke before they gave to me, so it’s glued back together.

But, best of all, there’s this: an original piece of Kindergarten homework from my niece Isabelle where she talks about how excited she is to go stay with her Tante; please to enjoy:

“I’m going to tante’s house she has two dogs. Sometimes we can go to the donut shop and stay up till nine-thirty and wach movies! It will one of the best night’s ever! and wile we wach movies we get to eat popcorn!”

Commence Tante’s heart melting every time she reads it.

Maybe I should clean off my fridge so it looks like the grown-up, sophisticated single woman that I am, but I remember all those sweet times I heard “Tante!” and I can’t. Isabelle will be 18 this year, and headed off to college next year, and I miss her already. Everytime I hit the fridge (which is often), there are all these beautiful memories of the people and experiences I have loved.