There is no single, absolute way to honor one’s ancestors and while there may be conventions of tradition among different spiritual paths, there are as many ways to venerate them as there are ancestors themselves, because not one spirit is the same. 

For my Grandma Hark, I wear her gold necklace, bake her rum cake and speak with her often as I pour over the boxes of old photos she dutifully dated and preserved.  Unlike mild and sweet Grandma Hark, a homebody who enjoyed quietly crocheting to the sounds of a romantic comedy playing on TV, Grandma Miyo was a feisty and stubborn lady who grew up in Tokyo’s entertainment district, Asakusa.  Grandma Miyo loved going out dancing, somewhat reckless driving and found the polite culture of Japan as too confining for her big personality.  Clothes shopping was one of her great joys and for an air raid and World War II survivor, who was anyone to stop her from this indulgence?  And so now we sit with mountains of barely worn and some entirely new department store and designer clothes. Much of her closet has gone to donation, but for the items that we know she worked so hard to obtain, it seems out of alignment with her memory to pass those along to Goodwill.  So, as a unique bit of ancestor work, we have launched Miyo's Closet.

Miyo’s Closet is a virtual boutique of my grandmother’s clothes, jewelry, and occasional other treasures.  Items will post to the account’s Instagram page first for the opportunity to shop via DM before moving to Etsy after a couple of weeks.