CAMEO

My mother, my grandmother

Always wore a cameo

Everyday.  All the ladies

Of that era did as it was

The height of fashion in 

The early nineteen hundreds.

It was clasped at the top of 

Their high necked dresses.

A lovely carved Ivory piece

Which usually had a 

Pale peach color also.

Carved always in oval shape.

A beautiful lady was

Silhouetted with fine 

Features.  Sometimes

There was a small diamond

At her breast.  When mother

Passed away I wanted hers.

Another family member,

Who lived in the same

City as mother, got

There before I arrived

For mothers funeral so I

Never found the precious cameo.

Years later I saw it,

Also other gifts my husband

Had given me, on her wall

When I visited.  A few months

Later I wrote to ask her if

I could have or buy then from her.

She said she never had them!

Her mother said she 

Had sold them.  Sad for me

To realize my progeny would

Not have valuable family heirlooms.

Some people have no sentimentality!