The Story of the Cameos

This cameo belonged to my Grandma Marcie. I've always loved and admired it, ever since I was a little girl, and believed it was probably worth something as well, being so old. When she transitioned in 1994, the cameo became mine, and I wore it close to my heart, often!!

This jewelry box belonged to my Grandma Ruth. When I was a little girl, I often went to her bedroom to open this most beautiful jewelry box and play with the precious treasures inside. I LOVED doing this with my grandma and have very fond memories. My grandma transitioned on July 4th, 2003 when I was pregnant with my Little Angel. (as a side note, she told us long before she passed, that she wanted to die on July 4th, so she could go out with a bang:D)

When I was all grown up, every once in awhile, I'd leave work and join my grandparents at their house for a planned luncheon. It just so happens that one day, I wore the green cameo that I had inherited from my Grandma Marcie. My Grandma Ruth took a look at it and said she has one JUST like it, and proceeded to go to the beautiful flower jewelry box above (apparently I forgot about this) to show it to me. And yes, it was identical in everyway, only the other was green, hers was brown. I was flabbergasted!! Both my grandmas had these precious, antique and valuable cameos, identical in almost every way! This just didn't seem possible! And my Grandma Ruth started laughing. She said they got these "cameos" together, in the early 1970's; and there was nothing monitarily valuable or "antique" about these---they came free with a purchase of "oleo" (the old word for margarine, which was at one time illegal to sell in Wisconsin, the Dairy State:)

So, I did share the story with my mom one day--who was cracking up--and soon after my Grandma Ruth passed (her mom), when I was pregnant with my Little Angel, my mom presented me with these genuine cameo earrings--to help treasure my grandmas and to preserve this precious story.

So you may ask, why did this story from 2003 suddenly come up? Because the above box contained the green cameo from my Grandma Marcie. I used to play with the box and admire it as a child, and I would smell it---I thought it was the smell of my grandma--and to this day, it still has some distinctive odor to it, that still screams GRANDMA!!! Well, recently I opened this little box to put a few earrings into it, and for whatever reason, something that had been covering the top white area was gone--and in its place, for the first time ever, I found the beautiful inscription, for my Grandma(s). This made me very happy:)