• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Women's Legacy Project
  • Home
  • About
  • How To Curate
  • Our Collective Legacy
  • Writing Online Memoir
  • Blog
Women's Legacy Project > Blog > Autoethnography > The Last Blossom on My Branch

The Last Blossom on My Branch

Written by: womenslegacy
Published: March 18, 2019 -- Last Modified: January 8, 2020
No comments yet

With my love of family stories, personal history, and personal material culture it is ironic that I see my Family Tree pruning itself into oblivion.

My daughter is the last women of my maternal line. She is so much like me in many ways. I always said until I was in my early 30s that I would never marry and neither would I have children. I did not lie, but situations and feelings change and evolve. My daughter, created and parented by husband and I, is the light of my life. She is 29 years old, married, successful in her career, and quite happy with her life as it is. She and her husband do not want children.

Bittersweet.

What do I do with the photos of my matrilineal ancestors? The passing down of records and even the inheritance of some material possessions comes to an end with me. My daughter is not interested in the collections amassed by the child of Depression-era parents. She laughingly talks of building a tiny house for herself and her husband, and then building one for me and one for my husband. She thinks we will get along better if we each have a tiny house. I laugh and love her comfort level with herself and with us. I have succeeded as a mother. Roots and wings.

So as I entered this year, 2019, with no significant liminal phases – birth, graduation, marriage, or first professional placement – in the works for my daughter’s along her timeline, I have realized that my love of women’s history and personal history will now turn not only to helping others learn how to use social media, write online, and use contemporary tools as they evolve but into helping myself find and place my memories and things into their proper places.

I am documenting the stuff of my life as I dispatch my life’s accumulation of things to their respective fates. Join with me as I travel this path of conscious curation of my life and that of my ancestors as I understand it.

Categories: Autoethnography, CURATE, Grief and MortalityTags: clear, clutter, curation, intention

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org
Previous Post: « 10 Maya Angelou Books and Poems That Should Be on Your Reading List
Next Post: Who To Read For Women’s History Month, Part One: Tillie Olsen »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Ending, and Beginning
  • For Our Daughters
  • Stand and Write
  • Context and Little Things
  • A Month is Just a Month… as Time Goes By
  • Processing Two Very Different Deaths
  • A Dehydrated and Delusional Friend Found Wandering in 100° Heat
  • About Women’s Legacy & Hill Research
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Archives

Powered by
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
View my Flipboard Magazine.

© 2023, Nancy Hill, Women's Legacy Project of Hill Research Services, LLC

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT