Becoming 60 – 20 important objects in my life (part one)

I know you know, I’m turning 60 years old soon. It’s an age I find difficult to accept and to imagine. How on earth have I got here? For most of my life, 60 always belonged to other people, old people. Never me.

In my heart I still feel like I’m navigating my 30s, navigating parenthood, and now grandparenthood and wondering when I’ll feel like a grown up. Nevertheless, here I stand with 60 on my doorstep and no doubt on a few birthday cards.

I’m trying my best to reflect on my years so far but also to envision the future. I’m both proud of so much in my life  and excited for what’s to come. When I think of what life was like for my mum at 60 and for my grandparents at 60, I feel like the world is so very different. Yet part of what makes it different is our attitude to our age. I choose to be loud, colourful, determined, driven and grateful.

Milestone birthdays have a way of making you reflect whether you like it or not. I’ve reflected on many different areas of my life but now I am making a conscious effort to consider the everyday. I want to think specifically about the everyday objects that have quietly travelled through life with me. Some are valuable and some are not. Some are big and some are small. Yet all of them tell a story.

I don’t tend to think of myself as a sentimental person but it’s a truth universally acknowledged that objects remind us of certain times in our lives. Some objects are worn, some sat on shelves and some hiding away in drawers, but I believe there is a story to be found in everything, if we know what we are looking for. When I worked on the popular TV day-time series Flog It! I would often realise how ordinary objects can be worth far more financially if there’s a good story attached to them.

If a base metal tea spoon turned up belonging to someone you’ve never heard of, it would barely be worth a quid – but if that object belonged to Winston Churchill, then that was a whole other price point. The object is still the same!

My first object of significance would have to be my wedding ring. To some this may be an obvious choice but for me it isn’t. I’ve always been an independent person and for a lot of years of my life I lived it as a single woman. I spent years navigating failed relationships and just as I made the decision to focus on being single and building a life that made me happy, I bumped into Steve at a nightclub in Swindon. Quite literally. I always tell my children the story of how Steve and I met and it’s still one that makes us laugh to this day. After many years of marriage, my ring has been on my finger for so long that it now can only be removed with oil!

My second object is my round glass fronted ‘memory’ cabinet. In the dining area of our house, sits my beautiful 1930s cabinet. For years, I always wanted one but couldn’t find one. My aunt Daff had one and I used to stare at it in awe when I was a child. Something about it just drew me in. I use mine to display a whole range of objects. Mostly, ornaments that I’ve collected over the years which mean something and some Lladro figurines. My late mother and father-in-law also shared a love for these trinkets and some of the ones in my cabinet today are from their house. Yet the cabinet itself really pleases me and makes me feel happy.

This next one isn’t so much a singular object but more several objects that hold great value. My books. Reading has been a huge part of my life since childhood. I came from a low-income background so most of my free time in my childhood was filled with reading. We didn’t get to go on planes and visit fancy places, but we did sometimes go away to a caravan park. Reading was something I could do anywhere and it was cheap to do. I have hundreds of books. Some on bookshelves and many balancing awkwardly next to my bedside table. I love to learn about different things and to escape reality by disappearing into different worlds.

Additionally, I’ve been lucky enough to write and publish my own books about my career. These of course are very important to me as they create a lasting memoir for my children and grandchildren. These are also an asset in business. For some they are purely a vanity project and guess what – I don’t care!

Those close to me will know that I lost my dad at a very young age. Losing him left a hole in my heart that nobody else will ever be able to fill and those who’ve lost a parent will understand that pain. That said, my dad was a brilliant man. He left school at a young age and worked in manual labour until he retired in his early 50s.  An object of great importance to me would be a watch that he gave me. The irony of this watch is that I didn’t want it. He kept buying me watches. One Christmas my mum asked what I wanted this year – I said I wasn’t sure but I didn’t want another watch. Christmas came and I was given a watch – the watch I still have. I sulked all day, my dad explained that when mum asked me that she knew that they had already bought me a watch. She wanted to change it but my dad refused. He said I’d have to have that watch regardless – I continued to sulk. Yet that little watch worked perfectly for years.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t describe myself as a religious person. I would say I’m more spiritual. I grew up in a religious home, and church was something we all did, almost like a social life. My Dad’s mother, my Granny Bune, Olive, was also religious. She gave me a cross and chain for my confirmation when I was 13 years old. This necklace is important to me because it not only reminds me of her, but it has a label with her handwriting on it. She died over 40 years ago so that label is more precious than the necklace itself.

My next items of significance feature more on my working day and the objects I cannot do my job without. The first being my smartphone. No, this is not a joke. Smartphones today aren’t just for making calls but give us access to the whole world. They are cameras, calculators, computers and iPod. Ultimately, my phone keeps me connected and this is imperative when you work in the media. That said, the journalist in me very much enjoys a simple notebook. These are central to what I do, and you never know when you’ll need to write something down. My ability to write in shorthand means I can take down quotes from people very quickly and they are still seen as credible evidence in any court case!

Moreover, my business cards are items that carry use regularly. They are great conversation starters when you meet new people and many like them because they’re tangible. Many people tell me that business cards are ‘dead’ but I’ve not found this to be the case. They are not used as often however having one to hand has benefitted me so many times.

It then makes sense that another item I must always carry is a pen. Don’t we all seem to spend our lives searching for a pen? Likewise, you never know when you need to write something down so a pen is a staple in my bag. In fact whenever I empty my bag or swap bags there are at least ten hiding at the bottom!

As my office is situated in my home, I spend a lot of time there when I’m not meeting clients. If I need to write down an important note, a shopping list or stick up an important letter then our fridge is the place to do it. And I do remember the days when we didn’t have a fridge at home. Which sounds crazy to our children. Yet I remember and can picture our first fridge and how luxurious it felt to know that food wasn’t go to go ‘off’ so quickly. This made a huge difference to my mum who often had to shop daily for basics. My grannies had big pantry cupboards but even so, milk was something you had to get daily. So difficult to understand now…

Next time I’ll share 20 more objects of importance in my life…