Das Bombenkoefferchen

The little suitcase of my grandmother ( she died in 1977). It was always underneath her bed, carried the birth certificates and bank saving books of every one of her family. With every alarm it was taken to the basement and so it survived the bombing of Luebeck in 1942. I salvaged it when the house of my parents was going to be sold in 2013. For me some objects seem to talk. How often must she have caressed that leather...Now it is slowly hardening. Nevada is too dry. For leather as well as all my old books with beautiful leather backs. I need to take pictures of them before they will break. I know we have to throw out ballast to be able to rise higher. Getting rid of the old stuff should make me feel lighter and happier, free. Somehow it does not work that way for me at the moment. Having to let go of many things that connect me to the past of my family makes me rather sad.