Trunk with history

I recently had a very very neat experience. I was really wanting to find an antique singer sewing machine, you know the ones built into the table with the foot peddle, for my own house. My dad had one when I was growing up that he used to sew tents and leather and it was more of a sentimental piece. So I found one on kijiji and had been emailing back and forth with the woman when we realised that they live about 2 miles from us! Perfect, no hour long drive to the city!

When we arrived at their house we noticed that they were also my moms neighbours and this is what started our conversation. We talked about how they share a couple moose that travel between her pasture and neighbours that we know.... We talked about the history of the land where they were and about the family that they bought their land from were the same that my mom & dad had.

Once we agreed on a price for the sewing machine I was fishing around to see if he had anything else to sell when he walked over to a back shelf and said "come over here, you might like this and appreciate its history" and he proceeded to pull out a BIG old metal trunk. He opened it up and WOW! The trunk had belonged to the family that my mom & dad bought the land from who homesteaded there. I remember going with my dad to visit these older bachelor brothers for Sunday tea & cookies, so it was neat to know that this trunk had belonged to them.

I fell in love with the trunk immediately but it was what was inside that was AMAZING! This trunk had come over from England with them when they homesteaded here! There is a record book inside that dates back to 1914! There were old glasses, papers about their cattle brand, dishes and even an old photograph! I was almost in tears this was soooo cool and had so much meaning for my family. This was not just an old trunk filled with stuff, it was bursting with history about the family who lived right where we do now and is so precious to me and he insisted I take it.

All I can say is WOW, sometimes there are no accidents and I think that I was meant to find this trunk and who would have thought that an add on kijiji for and old sewing machine would do that?!