Family heirlooms and mementos help us feel closer to our family members who have passed and allow us to continue our connections with them. A woman named Penny Rickhoff received a priceless heirloom from her mother, but it definitely wasn't the standard.
Penny wanted to share her mother's heirloom, which happened to be a gift from her first love, with KPHO News. The treasured object was nestled inside a small box. Once she opened it, the reporter covering her story was stunned.
"It's hard as a rock," Penny explains in the video below, posted on February 19, 2017.
Sitting inside her tiny gift box was a small beige cookie in the shape of a heart. The name "Bus" was written in pink icing and mostly still intact. For 85 years, Penny's mother had been keeping the cookie her first love had given her on Valentine's Day in the 1930s.
Penny explains that she wasn't at all phased by her mother's unusual choice for a family heirloom. She explains, "People back then didn't have a lot of money, so you bake them a cookie. What else can you give?"
The reporter then asks how the cookie survived for a whole 85 years. "You have to remember back then, they used 'better ingredients,'" she jokes. When asked if she stores it in the freezer, Penny replies, "No, I just put it in with my jewelry."
Then, Penny revealed that her mom also kept the ornate Valentine's Day card Bus had given her. Although Penny's gift was very different from what other moms usually give their kids, Penny has learned to cherish one of her mom's greatest memories as her own.
To see the cookie for yourself, check out the video below and please SHARE this story if you're happy to see Penny keeping the cookie safe, knowing it's what her mom would have wanted.
