When I began researching my family history, I was lucky enough to have my uncle Rich reconnect with a first cousin, Carol. The two had grown up together and then lost touch as adults. The research I was doing brought them back together. I met Carol on a visit to Chicago in the late 1990’s and while we were sharing family stories and photos, Carol gave me a beautiful necklace. The necklace she said, was given to my great grandma Brouk by her husband when he proposed in the late 1890’s. The necklace is very small, teardrop shaped with tiny pearls outlining it and a small pink stone in the middle. A couple gold leaves are near the stone.

Carol and I were talking recently and she told me how she came to have that necklace. One afternoon, as a teenager, she was spending time with Grandma Brouk and asked her about the necklace and told her how pretty it was. Grandma took it off her neck and gave it to Carol. Carol held on to it to pass it along to someone in the family who would take care of it and treasure it. Luckily that person was me.