At the family luncheon after Grandpa's funeral yesterday, Uncle Nile announced that we were going to open the Sorenson Family time capsule.
Back in the year 2000, Grandma and Grandpa asked us to each put something meaningful in a special box that would be locked up until 2025. Uncle Nile reasoned that this funeral might be the last time we all get together, so it made sense to open the box now and review its contents together. He added that Grandpa himself had opened it and sneaked a peak sometime in the last year or two, so he probably wouldn't mind us opening it ahead of schedule.
Some of the items brought back tender memories, like the baby rattle of Aunt Lisa's son Owen (who is now a missionary serving in Mexico). My contribution was a heartfelt letter about what I was learning about faith while serving as a missionary in Uruguay.
Other items were hilarious, like my cousin Emily's photo of the boyfriend she hoped to be married to in the future. Let's just say the picture was NOT of Ryan, the man she ended up marrying (who is seated next to her with a smug look on his face).
One of items was a small medal that left us all mystified. No one recognized it, so Uncle Nile set it aside and went through the rest of the box. He eventually pulled out a letter he had written 19 years ago, identifying the medal as a high honor he had received from some dental society. We all laughed as he read how meaningful the award had been to him at the time. Funny how some things matter a lot to us in the moment, but are forgotten years later.
Once we had gone through the entire time capsule, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the after-party party. While the adults looked through all the dishes and took turns choosing items they wanted to take home (we agreed that it was better that things go to family than to Goodwill), the great-grandsons had a blast playing with Grandma and Grandpa's big collection of canes. At one point I heard a loud crash, and I thought one of the boys had accidentally knocked over a lamp while cane-swordfighting or something. It turned out that one of their parents had dropped their newly-acquired glass serving bowl on the hearth, shattering it into tiny pieces. Easy come, easy go.
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