My coworker just shared a story with me that I just had to share with you. I asked permission before sharing....
Lisa and I have worked together for almost four years. She is an amazing woman. She often tells me of yard sales, estate sales and beautiful hat parties in the country with her girlfriends...because she knows how much I LOVE to hear about it.
When she came to me today with a story of a vintage item that she thought I'd want to hear- I was touched!
Lisa's mother died when she was a child but was raised by her step mother and father. Her step mother recently found a bracelet that a family member had purchased for her. She recounts wearing it through high school and then didn't quite keep track of where it had gone. When her step mother found it and reunited her with the bracelet- memories flooded and the bracelets meaning surfaced once again.
This vintage bracelet marked "Lesa" has a story behind it indeed. In short, Lisa was Lesa. Lesa was what her father told her that her name was, and how it was spelled was so. They had misplaced her original birth certificate and hadn't even thought about the name.
Lisa grew up as Lesa. When she came to work for the company we now work for, she had to have certain documents. In research, she came across her original birth certificate and realized her name was actually "Lisa". Shocking but true. Without changing her birth name, her "new" name became her as it was labeled on all her documents.
She often considers, "What if I had changed my name by law to Lesa?"
Today, I know her as Lisa...but there will always be a Lesa.
This vintage braclet is a precious reminder.
Old classmates have brought it up on Facebook and wondered what happened to Lesa as well. I thought this story was so fascinating. Don't you!
What a neat story!
ReplyDeleteWow- very fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet story! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is so funny. I have a similar thing happen. My legal name is actually Lauraann with no space between laura and ann and I never knew it until I got married and needed my birth certificate.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very touching story! It's so strange how much only a "letter" represents! To her, that E will always be special!
ReplyDeleteThis gave me the chills!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how sometimes big things like names are little things to fathers. My parents chose my middle name at the last minute. They had originally wanted Renee, and then changed their mind to Marie. When I was born, they had to give my mother general anesthesia. My father apparently was so excited I was here and okay that he gave the hospital staff the wrong name for the birth certificate. Until my mother got the birth certificate in the mail, she thought my middle name was Marie. All my hospital paperwork says Marie, because that's what she told them. However, he filled out the birth certificate, and that says Renee. Truth be told, I like Renee better anyway:)
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how jewelry tells stories. http://madamedeals.com/memories-building-a-memory-one-bead-at-a-time/
ReplyDelete