The Tale of the Cursed Earrings: Years ago in the Summer of 2013, when I was a rather tired, younger mother of two small children, my husband gave me the greatest gift: a full week off of mothering to attend a "Photography of People" workshop in Missoula Montana. While I was there, I missed my family with intensity, but the gift of spending a week focusing on a passion that was 100% mine quickly became one of my all time favorite life experiences. While wandering through the charming town of Missoula towards the end of my week, I found a cute boutique and allowed myself a souvenir for the week, these adorable, dangly, beaded earrings.
The Earrings: They went with everything. They dangled, they were the perfect size and for years I wore them ALL THE TIME. And they meant something to me, because they belonged to this very special week in Montana, where I truly fell in love with photographing people for the first time.
Fast forward to August 2018: One night I dragged my entire family to a concert, for which I had outfitted myself in a brand new dress and my "good luck" dangly earrings from Montana. I performed with my duo partner and it was a delightful concert. On the way home, we got into a terrible car accident. I won't go into the details because it still hurts to talk about it, but I will say that the other driver was drunk, everyone in our car was hurt, and our van was totaled. (Miraculously, my cello was fine. Thank you, expensive hard cases!) Trauma (and lasting injuries) from this accident still effect all of us years later.
Back to the earrings: I threw out the new dress when I got home from the hospital that night. Tossed the sweater I was wearing over it. But I couldn't get rid of the earrings. They meant too much to me to toss. But since that horrible night in 2018, I have not been able to put them on, even though they would have matched many of my outfits better than any other earrings in my collection. Every time I see them hanging there, I'm reminded of that horrible, traumatic night. However, I don't ever want to forget that beautiful week in Montana that belonged only to me. Sad, beautiful, cursed earrings, still just hanging there in 2023.
Souds like two extream moements in one night and sorry to hear that it is still affect your all. May be the earrings is there to keep your family alive?
i am with @yaorenliu that the presence of the earrings saved you and everyone in your vehicle. so you can look at them to remind you of that beautiful week in montana, and the aura they possessed that protected you from that vehicle incident. if they were cursed, you would have discarded them a long time ago, for sure.
A lovely clear image of your beautiful earrings. And a compelling narrative to accompany it. I certainly understand imbuing items of clothing or jewelry with the emotions that accompanied their use. I have done it often myself. Perhaps a time will come when it feels right to wear them again; or perhaps you will only continue to enjoy them “hanging there”. Either way, thank you for sharing this.
What a sad tale. I agree with Yao though, maybe the earrings are there to keep you safe. Maybe you should wear them again to be thankful you are still here to tell the tale however sad the story has been.
My daughter committed suicide 10 years ago and I have a pair of earrings she bought me for my 50th birthday many years ago. I was unable to wear them for years but now I have reached acceptance I wear them with pride.
Oh, my, god, I get goose bumps hearing your story. It's incredible how earrings can mean so much in such contrasting ways. I'm a big earrings fan. Keep them. Remember the good and the bad. With time, your Montana week will come to be more important and more present that than fateful evening in 2013 - and although that experience was clearly traumatic, you survived, your family survived, and your cello survived. Maybe the earrings protected you in some weird and wonderful way.
@onewing I'm so sorry, Babs. Thank you for sharing with me. I'm inspired by your own earring story. @yaorenliu That's a good point of view. Thank you, Yao. @summerfield Thank you. @amyk I hope you are right. Thank you for your thoughts. @jamibann Thank you, Issi. I hope you are right. @boxplayer Thank you. @pusspup Thank you, Wylie.
Hoping as time goes by you will heal from that harrowing experience. I work with motor vehicle accident patients as a physical therapist and so many suffer from post traumatic stress and ongoing physical issues. Time is a great healer. I like Wylie's idea of something new from the old.
My daughter committed suicide 10 years ago and I have a pair of earrings she bought me for my 50th birthday many years ago. I was unable to wear them for years but now I have reached acceptance I wear them with pride.
@yaorenliu That's a good point of view. Thank you, Yao.
@summerfield Thank you.
@amyk I hope you are right. Thank you for your thoughts.
@jamibann Thank you, Issi. I hope you are right.
@boxplayer Thank you.
@pusspup Thank you, Wylie.