magsaysay: The Treasure Box Proposal. Every...

magsaysay:

The Treasure Box Proposal. Every Christmas Eve, Todd and I exchange one gift. This year, he gave me a brown paper and white ribbon wrapped treasure box. Inside, he filled it with ephemera of things I love. Todd is excellent at finding antique and vintage items, so I went through each layer carefully:

Top Layer: Bakelite and brass goggles, glass vial with brass gears, US 8 cent stamp of my grand-uncle, Ramon Magsaysay.

2nd Layer: Love Letters of Men and Women of Genius 1920, Antique Metropolitan Life Insurance silver plated mechanical pencil

3rd Layer: Rockefeller Skating Scene animated motion picture flip book, mink skull with teeth that Todd hand-painted gold.

4th Layer: Postcard of Cristofano Allori’s painting of Judith with the Head of Holofernes, (who I’m named after) mailed in 1918 from Eastern Europe, Philippine one cent coin 1944.

5th Layer: The Wisdom of Charlie Brown 1972, Chicago patch.

Bottom Layer: Postcard of circus poster of an elephant, velvet bag, Art Deco aquamarine, diamonds and gold ring from the 1920s.

The velvet bag was the very last in the box. At first I thought it was just an empty pretty bag for me to fill. Oh there’s something inside. So I pulled out the ring quickly and was immediately dumbstruck. I looked at it, I looked at him. He said, It’s an engagement ring. I start to laugh and cry simultaneously.