Look &/or listen to my guest, fellow photo manager Ellen Massaro shares the story of a young girl coming home from the hospital after a two month post-surgery stay to celebrate her 6th birthday!

As is customary in her home country of the Netherlands, girls get charms to celebrate each birthday & special occasion growing up.

Ellen got 6 charms that 1st year! Unlike many of her fellow Dutch women, who stopped wearing their charm necklaces at an early age, Ellen wore hers throughout her teens, twenty’s & to this day.

She wears it often & during all seasons. You can tell it is an important part of her life… truly a Thing that matters.

As a matter of fact when her niece had an interview project, as part of a class, she interviewed Ellen to find out what three things she would bring with her if she had to move to Mars. This necklace was the first thing she thought of.

Needless to say #everycharmhasastory but Ellen picked out a few to share their stories. The mill charm was one of the 6 original ones from her 6th birthday. She played with the hands on the mill so much that 2 of them fell off, the doll stroller with its moving wheels & the keys were all with her as she grew into a teen. For her 16th birthday she got a charm bracelet filled with beach themed charms! Ellen lives for time at the beach, in & around the ocean. She visits it often & gets plenty of vitamin Sea. Her favorite charms from that bracelet are the dainty mussel shell, the beach chair & the surf boarding.

She wasn’t fond of the bracelet itself because of the way it feels & sounds on her wrist. Soon after she married her mother-in-law died and she inherited her charm bracelet. The charms, she believes, came from Spain with their classic filigree. Those charms remind her of this woman she didn’t know well but… and of her first trip to a foreign country which was Spain.

As a professional organizer, she realized her charm collection was a bit disorganized. With a good year for her business, she decided to hire a silversmith to take all of two charm bracelets & the original necklace plus various charms she found, a small mushroom, and bought over the years.

She enlisted his services and artistry to create one necklace with all her precious charms. What a gorgeous job he did! When Ellen wears it & looks at it she is reminded of all the periods of her life. It is a bit of a time-machine that can take her back when she touches each piece.

FYI: Ellen Massaro had volunteered to be a story-sharer at the in-person Show & Tales hosted during The Photo Managers Denver, CO conference in 2022!

Sadly she became ill & wasn’t able to join me then…. but showed me her charm necklace at the closing party