Today Sandy (EDITOR'S NOTE: Sandy was wife and partner to my Uncle Howard-the youngest sibling of Mom & Aunt Betty), Betty and I divided up some of Mom's jewelry. Dad had asked Betty to do it while Sandy was here so she could pick something she wanted.
I felt rather like one of the soldiers dicing for Christ's garment, but I was given back a necklace which has a curious history. I used to sell my jewelry at a small florist's shop. Then the owner was ill and had to go out of business. I came in to collect my jewelry and she offered to sell me a Chinese soapstone pendant. I liked it and gave her $20.00-just, as it happened-what she needed to finish paying the rent (the rent collector was there). I got some white onyx beads and heavy gold coloured chain and made a necklace for it. Robert Belog liked the necklace so much he gave me $25.00 for it and gave it to me as a present. I wore it on a visit to my grandmother and she insisted it was so beautiful I ought to give it to my mother so I did. While our house was being burgled three times in London, Mother kept the pendant safe at home. When Stewart got my jewelry out of a safe deposit box in San Francisco, he pawned my diamond ring and antique gold earrings, but Mother still had my pendant. So now I have it back-preserved only because I gave it away!
Betty also gave me back the Nell Gwyn (sp?) doll and the Anne Boleyn doll I had sent to Grandmother and to Mother. All my souvenirs of England were left behind in London when I came home directly from Bermuda, but these dolls I have because I sent them home as gifts. That's a result I hadn't foreseen.
Nancy Lawson
a picture from her early teaching days in San Franciso
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