The River, the Color Blue, and the Gold Beads
Janet Margaret Bell, 10/15/1924-01/10/2023 lived her life joyfully. Her desires were few but those she held were not a requirement for happiness. She welcomed new situations and people with a contagious curiosity always looking for the good in people and situation.. That doesn't mean that she was never sad or disappointed. She would have what she called, "pity parties" and then move on after a good cry. She recommended to everyone, a tear duct flushing when necessary.
She cherished the gold beads and every picture from the time her mother passed until the day I removed them from her neck as my sister and I prepared her body for her final journey. That was except for the one week they went missing.
Mom was living at American House Assisted Living near me in Charlevoix, MI. One day she called, frantic, "My beads are missing!!!. I can't find them anywhere." As I drove over, I knew how important they were. She and her sister had split the necklace in half when their mother died and each had completed their necklaces with new gold beads. We all knew the story of how our Great-grandfather Kleihower had purchased them for his wife at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. It was the very place that President McKinley was assassinated. When anyone commented about the beads she would launch into the story.
As I drove I could not imagine how they would have been removed and then lost. Mom's eyesight was seriously affected by macular degeneration and the clasp required sight and agility having a double catch system. She was also affected by a worsening short-term memory loss. (She liked to say, "my memory is getting shorter."
When I arrived she was visibly upset and I began searching her small apartment, over, under, between, behind and in every bit of space. Nothing. I went out to the director because I knew someone had to have helped her get the necklace off but I could not imagine why. I tried not to think that anyone who worked there could stoop so low as to steal it. She knew nothing but would pass the word for everyone to keep an eye out. I had done all I could and was heart sick about the loss of one of the most precious items my mother owned. She had long ago instructed us to divide the beads between her 6 grand daughters when the time came. They would skip the daughters as her sister, Lois had also done.
The trouble wasn't over because Mom could not remember from one day to the next. I got the same frantic call every day, sometimes twice in a day. I would go over and search again and comforter her. "We'll find them." We prayed to St. Anthony. I thought of telling her the beds were out being repaired. I had been on line researching a necklace that would maybe feel like the missing necklace. She could reach up and touch it and think nothing of the loss.
About a week later, I stopped by and saw that the missing gold necklace was there, on mom's neck in all its glory. "Oh mom, you have your gold necklace on!!!" She answers, "Of course, I never take it off." She had no memory of the recent loss and search. When I asked the administrator, who found the necklace. She had no idea either......if she did, she was not saying. More grateful than wanting to get to the bottom of the theft?, I pursued it no further.
Recently, while spending some time with a local member of the Anishinaabe Band of Odawa, he mentioned the almost universal presence of "little people" who populate stories in Native Cultures across all regions of our country. I remembered my mom talking about the Lutron's and Pipsiwas (little people) who could be blamed for unexplainable mischief such as missing objects when we were kids.. That is the only explanation that makes sense to me.
