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Friday Slide Show: Mom's Charms
28 November 2025
As a child there was nothing in Mom's jewelry box as fascinating as her charm bracelet. No gold bracelet, no diamond stud earring, no brooch, no ring. Only her charm bracelet could charm a child.
As a trustee getting her jewelry appraised, it was a different story. The appraiser was blunt. The charm bracelet had no value.
But he too was charmed by it. Imagine, he said, every one of these charms has a story to tell.
The charms, no doubt, were not very expensive to start with. And the real value they held was the occasion of their acquisition, as he supposed. One by one, they would tell the story of your life. No two charm bracelets would be alike.
Mom's original bracelet, the one that had captivated me as a child, was stolen. But it meant enough to her that she recreated it with the one pictured in today's slide show.
At one end is a devil, at the other an angel. She herself was a Gemini.
There are two cable cars, a gondola, a fire truck. There is a boot, a wish bone, a cactus. A bear (with articulated body parts), a rose, two more angels (one whose nose got flattened).
It's about seven and a half inches long with each charm about 3.4-inch tall.
We could guess at the personal meaning of each of them. But it's not that heavy a metal. It's not an X-ray of your soul. It's a fun piece. She pickd the stuff she liked.
And her kids fell in love with them.
