A Long and Interesting Life
My great-grandmother lived a very long and interesting life. She was in her 20s during the great depression. She had a wild streak from those days that we don’t know much about, to the point that we actually don’t know our great-grandfather’s name. We only know the husband she took later.
Over the course of her nearly 100-year life, she had collected owls. She had literally thousands of owl figurines and doodads. She had clocks, wall-hangings, potholders, lamps, stained glass art, salt shakers, and more little figurines than you could imagine, all depicting owls.
We all wondered what the importance of the owls was. She never talked about them. We just all knew that she loved owls. When she was nearing the end, at the age of 98 or 99, and the doctors said she had mere days left, my grandparents went and talked to her.
They asked her if she had anything she wanted to share or ask before she went. She thought for a moment, then said something that changed our whole idea of her: “I never understood the owls”.
Yep, it turned out she didn’t really give a darn about owls. From what we could piece together, sometime in the 40s or 50s, perhaps, she bought either a trivet or a set of salt/pepper shakers that were owls.
Then someone got her the other. Those were the oldest owl things anyone could remember. From there, someone got her an owl to match, probably a potholder or a placemat.
Then, all of a sudden, her kitchen was owl themed. From there, it snowballed. The owls flowed in, baffling her for 60 years, eventually taking over as the bulk of her personal belongings. Story credit: Reddit / Fearlessleader85