Your pens have a lasting value, but the value is far more than the monetary worth. This month I was contacted by an individual:

... In helping clean out an estate, I came across a dozen or so used fountain pens (looks like Parker and Esterbrook, mostly). I'd love to give them to someone like you who might pass them along to someone who would enjoy them. The gentleman who used them was a left-hander He wrote a lot, sermons, daily journal entries, etc., as he was a Methodist minister and for many years dean of the theology school at SMU in Dallas.

The day before Christmas Eve, a box of pens arrived at my house.

As I looked at the various pens that arrived, it struck me that this was the true value of your pen, and item that you have used for many years, and can be passed on to another person.

It is not whether there is a higher dollar value on the pen. Its more, because the pens are an expression of the individual.

When Nancy went through the pens she knew how they were used and what they meant to the individual. Disposable pens must be found everyday as estates are being finalized. There is not a second thought on one of those pens. They are simply junked. But these fountains pens meant more to the individual, and more to the friend who was finalizing his estate.

Along with the pens was a orange, paper-covered box that was used as a pen holder. I could visualize that box, complete with an assortment of pens, sitting on his desk, ready to write.

I feel truly honoured to have received the pens. Many of them seem to work. They have fine nibs, and pens of the era were much smaller than the big fountain pens made today, but I must say one of the pens with a fine nib came in very handy to write out my Christmas gift cards. And what a treat to know I was using a pen that meant something to someone else, to write out my gift card.

Nancy, thank you for the gift. It reinforced the value of my pens to me and I hope my pens take a similar path one day.