For my birthday my aunt took me out for a lovely lunch and gave me a present that had belonged to my grandfather. My aunt was doing volunteer work in California in the 1960s when my grandparents visited her there. My grandfather was very interested in the state’s giant redwood trees. So my aunt gifted him with this redwood pen stand. She kept it when Grandpa died and decided to pass it on to me for my birthday, since I like to write.
I love this gift. I had never really thought of my paternal grandfather as a writer till we moved to Arizona for a year in 1989 and Grandpa took to writing me letters, perhaps with this very pen. They were interesting letters and full of words of wisdom and advice. 
I have placed Grandpa’s pen set on a shelf in my living room next to a letter writing set that belonged to my maternal grandmother, Annie Jantz Schmidt. I inherited it when she died. It has a holder for a pen, an ink pot, a small stamp container and a rack for envelopes. My mother often talked about what beautiful handwriting my grandmother had.
I love having these two pieces of writing memorabilia from my two grandparents.
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