Victims

B came home around noon on Wednesday and discovered our front door jam had been broken with a crowbar. Splintered wood littered the foyer. We had been robbed.

The metal door itself was intact.

All that we miss is my jewelry box that was in a drawer which the robber(s) left open. They also opened B’s top dresser drawer but decided they didn’t need any more underwear. The investigating deputy surmised they were only in the house for about 2 minutes. Our guess is they wanted gold. They got a little--- very little.

Among the treasures they took are:

Gold dragonfly earrings that younger son D gave me for Christmas one year.

A gold charm bracelet from my childhood.

Grandma Solomon's heavy choker necklace. I never knew what kind of metal it was, though I suspected nickel. She probably brought it from Germany. I have worn it many, many times.

A gold bangle that was a high school graduation gift.

A gold necklace from my sister, given to her by a boyfriend she didn’t marry. I loved it and wore it every week.

A silver filigree pendant designed in Celtic knots given to me by a student. ( I loved that.)

A silver apple pendant/pin with my initials engraved on it—a gift from a student. (Loved that, too.)

A gold chain with a ginkgo leaf pendant. It was a real leaf dipped in Dahlonega, Georgia gold with matching earrings.

All but three pair of my earrings. They are not valuable, just decorative and I wear earrings every day in my pierced ears. (One pierce per ear has worked just fine for over 40 years, by the way.)

A $3 silver and blue bead elastic bracelet that my Mom bought me and I loved and wore a lot.

Some old rhinestone jewelry that had belonged to family friends.

Plastic pins from my Dad’s trip to the USSR in the 70’s.

A mask pin from Italy that a school parent brought me from Air Force duty in Italy.

Turquoise scarab stones set in gold earrings from an uncle’s trip to Egypt. ( I wore them once when I dressed up as a gypsy.)

A necklace made of coffee beans and cowry shells from a student from Ethiopia.

My two jade necklaces, gifts from students from China.

My dog tag from the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960’s. Most Florida kids wore them every day as their parents built bomb shelters in their yards.

I have never had my home invaded. My parents did a decade or so ago.

I feel sad. And nauseous. And thankful that more damage was not done to our home and that the few valuable pieces I have were kept elsewhere.

Couldn’t they have taken our TV?

I suspect they were disappointed with their loot.

Older son D suggested that perhaps there is a list of homes not worth the bother to break into and just perhaps we might get on that list.

 

I envision a dirt road somewhere not too far from here. Cast from a moving car’s window is a cherry wood jewelry box. The hinge to the top  broke when it hit the ground. Scattered around it are bits of metal, glass and plastic. That’s all it is, really.  But to me, it was much more. Each piece had a story.