Losing My Mother's Sterling Silver Hand-Made Navajo Squash Blossom Necklace

Losing My Mother's Sterling Silver Hand-Made Hopi Squash Blossom Necklace

She bought the necklace on a trip we took
to Santa Fe, where everything is made by hand
by aging native men hammering silver dimes
into hollowed little beads.

In Ranchos de Taos, we watched a Hopi
master craftsman with his jewelers loupe
studying mother and me with more intensity
than the work he did.

We came home from camping at the beach.
The window in the bedroom shattered.
The jewelry box in the drawer missing.
The necklace with it.

They stole the one thing I really valued,
wanted most from my mother's estate,
thought beautiful—melted for drug money.
Its loss tortures me.

I rarely talk about that awful night I grieved
my only treasure—the night I sobbed.
The pain—worse than watching mother lose
her battle with cancer