A few months after my father's death mom and I opened his trunk
My Father’s Trunk
My mother and I would first have to remove the family clothes from the closet. There were boxes upon boxes of books, shoes and a lot of old papers.
The closet was deep narrow too tight for comfort. After piles of boxes came more clothes and a moth eaten fur no longer worth saving! Finally after more
odds and ends we pulled out the trunk. .
The inside of the trunk was lined in blue. In the truck was sheet music of happy songs from the flapper era,
old leather bound books, note books with hand drawngraphs of aero plane parts, a wallet containing pictures
of my grandparents, a rosewood pipe, a man’s silver pocket watch, a silver topped walking stick, a bottle of
Johnny Walker, barbers clippers, one bank book, a razor, a pocket knife, a flying helmet, one air force uniform, five diaries and a pay book containing grains of sands from the Middle East.
These are personal effects of 805234 FLT Sergeant A.C Darlaston who above all was a decent honest person
Needless to say the trunk remained open for a few days.
Hour after hour I spent reading the diaries fantasizing and sometimes just touching!
Dear Beryl, Your story is very touching, in particular because it brings up the father's memory, and even more so because he was a soldier and a decent honest person as you mentioned. Short story but very succint. Thank you for sharing. Emile
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