My mother write this on October 11, 1989, three days before my birthday and thirty-five days before she passed away.
You may be 21 now, but don’t forget the things of your childhood–they keep you young forever. … The other things are just stuff, some old, some new, you might be able to use. … The gift is for the things of the future–may you have a long and productive and happy one.
What things of your childhood do you keep?
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
Heh. I tried to keep a lot of my childhood things. Life had other plans for me though.
And interestingly enough, I survived. 🙂
Life usually has other plans. You’re here though. That’s the main thing.
I think I’d rather forget the things of my childhood.
Well, even the things we’d like to forget make us who we are. Your childhood gave us you. And though I don’t know you well, the you who is here is pretty all right.
I don’t have an y possessions and but a handful of photos, but lately I have been reclaiming parts of myself. For instance: I saw a teddy bear in a toy store a few months ago and, after thinking about it, went back recently and bought her. I gave her a name from my childhood (Harriet, from my favorite book, Harriet the Spy) and yes, I cuddle her from time to time. For some reason (she looks nothing like any toys I had then) she instantly conjures up my young self- about eight years old, I think. The years from about five, to age ten, were difficult and chaotic in my family and that trend only continued, but they also feel like the years in which much of my self was formed, on a very private level. The years of discovering the power of stories, of words. The years before I started paying too much attention to what other people thought, and adapting myself to that.