Sober find in the Antique Cabinet 🍂

*Trigger Warning for Family*

This post may be upsetting to read, so fair warning.

     Anytime you decide to dig through history, you are bound to find some sobering items. I wasn't sure what I was going to come across in the cabinet, but I wasn't prepared for this. It even threw Mark for a loop & he had to take a few minutes. And to the naked eye and uninformed person, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Some might have just boxed it up to get rid of it or even thrown it away, which is what I was originally going to do until I looked it over.

    This is a wick that is used in oil lanterns and lamps. And as you can see, it contained asbestos. Most everything did at some point. It was considered a "brilliant" construction material. Not only was it cheap and widely available in nature, but it was also Fire Resistant. So naturally, when using a flammable substance like Oil, it's smart to have something that would keep that fire under control. And since Asbestos is very fibrous, it could be woven into just about anything that needed to be fire-resistant.

Photo from Ebay listing of the wick outside the box

    But of course, as most of you know now, asbestos was also very dangerous to use. It is known as the "hidden killer". It is what took my dad's life. So of course, my first instinct was to trash this deadly box, as it did still contain the wick. But then I turned it over to read the side of the box.

    My heart just sank and I couldn't breathe for a minute. Now, while most of you know that my dad had passed from Mesothelioma, what you probably didn't know is that he worked at the factory Tallman-McCluskey, along with his mom (my grandma). They were an asbestos manufacturing factory. Raw asbestos would come into the factory, and they would turn it into all kinds of materials; one of them being this wick. 
    Really it was just a reminder of the reality I currently faced. Here I was processing through my dad's antiques from his cabinet, as he was no longer living, because his life was taken from him by Mesothelioma, a cancer that is caused by asbestos fibers getting trapped in the lungs (fibers that float so lightly in the air that it was used as snow in movies) that he contracted in his life from working many jobs where asbestos was used, including Tallman-McCluskey of whose product I am currently holding in my hand and wouldn't have found if my dad wouldn't have died from being exposed to a product like this. I can hear Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic" playing in my head.
    So instead of throwing it away, I wrapped it up in plastic and placed it inside of a box. As a reminder. Not that I really need one. But with all the companies that are trying to cover up and have been trying to cover up the fact asbestos kills, or trying to hide the fact their products contain asbestos, I want proof. I'm saving the proof. For legal reasons, I can't discuss details of his lawsuits with the companies responsible, but we are still fighting with a few because they want proof. Proof asbestos was used and they are responsible. So yeah, after dealing with that, I plan on keeping this. 
    I was doing ok going through Dad's cabinet until I came to that. Like I said, it hit Mark hard and he had to walk away. But we kept on. And we did find some really neat things in Dad's cabinet. See my other post, Exciting Finds in the Antique Cabinet. I really have been waiting to go through this cabinet for many years because it is just so full of history. Good and bad. So I will do my best to preserve everything I can, including the stories behind the items. So when it comes time for me to pass these items down, my child will know and not wonder like I am with my dad. Because these stories need to be shared. And never forgotten.

Miss you Dad...