big dig

chapter 2: attic antiquities

From a shroud of fog, specters of my ancestors appear. A teapot, tarnished sterling. Handmade Valentine’s Day cards to my mother. Old Butterick patterns. Blouse, skirt, A-line dress. Passports and past lives sheathed in Ziplock bags—Peru, Morocco, Austria, Greece.

In the dim silence of a 40-watt bulb, future me collides with the comforting past. Here, in attic shadows, lie glimmers of my grandparents: sketches and portraits, a battered Bonwit Teller hatbox adorned with violets, filled with yellowed lace and photographs.

A time capsule, these scraps of life, preserved in the centuries-old attic amber for discovery by a future civilization.

my grandfather’s illustrations and a photograph of an unknown ghostly ancestor