Elaine T. Jones

The old steamer trunk that used to belong to Aunt Donsy was now a coffee table in Delores living room where the Searcy family gathered after Clarences funeral, it was one of the few family possessions left from the previous generation. The group conversation began to focus on our shared memories and questions about Aunt Donsys trunk. Until that conversation we each only had questions, but no complete answers When did the trunk become so mysterious, and why? Where did the trunk come from, and what were the secret contents? Aunt Donsys trunk became a conduit as the family pieced together the fragments of information that each one knew. It was like putting a puzzle together as our history began to take shape to form a picture of one family: The righteous, and the unscrupulous; the determined and the pretenders; the strong and the fragile.