A/N: Hello! Welcome to my first story on this account! This is a little one-shot that I wrote in response to a Reedsy Prompt, "Write about someone giving or receiving a gift." So, credit goes to them for the idea. But, I never entered this story into the weekly competition, so it kind of just sat in my drive.  Until now. Hope you all enjoy!

The little girl looked upon her mother.

It was a sight that distressed her greatly, for her mother was pale and shaking and looked as fragile as the glass cups in their cabinets, used only for special occasions. She had learned the hard way that they could break with even the slightest impact.

Her father was out, gone to try and find work. It seemed to be all he ever did, given that work was scarce. He hardly ever came back home before her bedtime anymore. There had been many nights where she had crept out of her room, unable to sleep, and watched her mother wait in the rocking chair in their living room for her father. And whenever he arrived, he always looked weary and defeated. She never stayed beyond that point, for the fear of being caught.

The little girl didn't understand why any of this was happening. She longed to go back to the earlier parts of her life, when both her parents smiled, when they had the time to play a game or two of kapela with her.

But she was sitting at her mother's bedside, while her mother had an illness that the visiting doctor had called 'in-cur-able'. And when she had asked her father what it meant, her father had sat down at the dining room table and started crying. After that, the girl had felt so guilty that she had crawled onto her father's lap and apologized to him, even though she had no idea what she had done to upset him.

The little girl clutched her mother's clammy hand tightly and bore her cornflower blue eyes into her mother's closed chestnut ones.

She silently begged for her mother to get up.

And, as though her prayer had come true, her mother stirred.

The little girl instantly leapt out of her chair. "Mama?"

Her mother shifted in her blankets so that her head was turned towards her young daughter. "Moje dziecko... proszę, przytul mnie."

My child... hug me, please.

And the little girl immediately did as her mother asked; she let go of her hand, moved closer, and wrapped her arms around her mother's skinny form.

Her mother, as weak as she was, managed to embrace her daughter as well. Her chin rested on the top of the little girl's soft honey blonde curls. The little girl sighed contentedly; her mother may still be sick, but it had been so, so long since her mother had asked her for a hug.

"Kochanie," the little girl's mother murmured, so soft that even her daughter could barely hear it, "Weź to. Mój podarunek dla ciebie."

Honey, take this. My gift to you.

And her mother unwrapped one shaking arm from around her daughter and picked up something that lay on her nightstand. She held out her hand, on which hung a necklace. It was made of thin gold chain, strong but elegant. And, at the bottom hung an amulet. It certainly wasn't the biggest amulet; it was made of three concentric gold rings, the largest being maybe large enough to fit around her mother's thumb. The smallest ring was completely covered by a small blue gem, the same shade of the little girl's eyes. The other two had small, simple designs carved onto them, that didn't particularly signify anything.

The necklace was one of the last valuable things the family owned. Most of the mother's other jewelry, save for her engagement and wedding rings, as well as the other valuables in the house had long been sold to keep their little family afloat.

But the little girl, unaware of how special this necklace was, eased out of her mother's embrace and took it gently from her hand, her eyes flickering to the necklace for only a second, before going back to her mother. She stood where she was, clutching the necklace, watching her mother.

"Pocałuj mnie na dobranoc, mój kwiatuszek."

Kiss me goodnight, my little flower.

And, once again, the little girl did not deny her sick mother; she leaned over and planted a soft kiss against her mother's cheek.

"Dobranoc, mama."

Goodnight, mama.

Her mother was too weak to reply. The little girl didn't notice, but her mother's breathing had slowed, and her heartbeat was growing faster and more erratic.

The little girl was still standing there, holding the necklace, as her mother took her final breath.

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As time passed, the girl grew to understand the circumstances that had plagued her family since her childhood. She did everything to support her father, who had never quite stopped grieving over her mother.

She carried her mother's necklace, with its thin gold chain and unique little amulet, to Warsaw, when she moved there to find work.

And when the first German bombs began to fall over Poland's capitol city, obscuring the rising sun, she dressed quickly, grabbed her mother's amulet, and went outside to see what was going on.

Her mother's necklace had even saved her life; she had been trudging to another market - supplies had been running low ever since the siege on the city began - when she realized that her mother's necklace wasn't safely tucked below the neckline of her gown. She had frantically backtracked, desperate to find the last piece of her mother she had.

To her relief, she found the necklace quickly, lying a puddle of mud on the street, but when she continued on her path to the market, she was horror-struck to find a large crater in the middle of the street - the direction she would have been going had she not turned back for her mother's necklace.

And when the Germans finally invaded the city, took care of the Jews, and turned their attention to the Poles, she, along with many other citizens, were shipped out of the city and into the German Empire as slaves. But, somehow, she managed to keep the amulet with her.

It traveled with her through the six long years of the Second World War, and after, too, when she boarded a ship to America. She had nothing left in Poland, after all; no family, no friends, no life.

Her mother's necklace, with its thin gold chain and unique little amulet, stayed with her in the new, unfamiliar world that was the USA, as she worked hard to start over, to forget the horrors she had seen.

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The teenage girl looked up at her mother, who was rocking the cradle that contained her younger brother.

"What did you want to talk about, Mama?"

"I have something I want you to have, mój kwiatuszek." Her mother spoke perfect English, but she often mixed Polish phrases and terms of endearment in her speech. The girl had a theory that it helped her feel more connected to her country, the country that she had made the decision to leave after the Second World War.

The teenage girl didn't know much about her mother's past, but she knew that it was difficult; her parents refused to tell her much more.

"You know that I was born in the Polish countryside, and that I lost my mother at a very young age." Her mother stated, in her thick Polish accent. The girl nodded, her cornflower blue eyes bright.

"Well, right before she died, she gave me this." And her mother reached to the back of her neck, fumbled for a moment, then lifted a thin golden chain from around her neck. The teenage girl had noticed it before, but never given it much thought; the only thing she knew about that necklace was that her mother never seemed to take it off.

Her mother held the necklace in front of her daughter, and, for the first time, the girl noticed the amulet that hung on the end. It was made up of three concentric gold rings, the larger two carved with small designs, and the smallest covered by a gem that matched the eye color of both her and her mother.

"It's beautiful." The girl breathed, staring at the amulet. Something about it drew her eyes in, and they didn't want to look away.

Her mother cracked a smile. "That it is. I have worn this necklace ever since my mother breathed her last."

The teenage girl finally managed to turn her eyes to her mother. "You mean... you carried this with you throughout the entire World War?"

The girl instantly regretted the words that came out of her mouth. She knew that she shouldn't mention that part of her mother's life; she had been awoken many nights by the screams of her mother, as she thrashed about, stuck in a nightmare. She always offered her father assistance in calming her, and her father always turned her down.

But just as she opened her mouth to apologize, her mother began speaking. "Yes. This necklace has survived the siege of Warsaw, the forced labor of the Polish people, and the entire journey to America."

The teenage girl stared at her mother, wide-eyed. Her mother never, never discussed that time of her life with her, and, suddenly, she was opening up, confiding in her daughter more than she ever had in the past.

"And now," her mother continued, smiling gently at the look on her face, "I want you to have it."

"M-Me?" The girl stuttered, shock evident on her face. "B-But, what about y-your mother?"

Her mother simply smiled. "It was once my mother's gift to me, and now it will be my gift to you."

"I can't take it, mama." The teenage girl attempted to convince her mother. How could she take one of her mother's most treasured heirlooms from her? "It reminds you of your mother. It means much more to you than it will to me."

"And one day, I, too, will be gone, and then you'll have this necklace to remember me by."

The girl noted the faltering smile on her mother's face, and another wave of guilt surged through her. Her mother was beginning to think she didn't want the amulet. That couldn't be further from the truth; the teenage girl would be proud to carry a necklace that had survived so much, that had belonged to the grandmother she never knew.

So, the girl admitted defeat, so she wouldn't offend her mother any more. "Alright, mama. Thank you."

Her mother smiled, and gestured for her daughter to bow her head. The teenage girl did as told, and her mother gently pushed her braid to the side, before fastening the clasp of the necklace at the back of her neck. "There we go."

The teenage girl lifted her head, and her mother smiled at her; a rare, dazzlingly bright smile, and reached out to tuck a few strands of brown hair behind her daughter's ear. "It's right where it belongs, now." Her mother commented.

The girl blushed, and brought up a hand to clutch the amulet.

Somehow, the way the amulet rested on her chest, right below the neckline of her shirt, felt very right.

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Just like her mother, the teenage girl grew into a lovely young woman. And, also like her mother, she kept that necklace with her wherever she went.

It stayed with her throughout her basic training as a member of the Army Nurse Corps, her deployment to Vietnam, and, once there, her job as a military nurse, accompanying the troops and treating the wounded.

It was tucked under her nurse's outfit when shrapnel pierced her skin, while the hospital she was working in was being attacked. It lay at her bedside as other doctors and nurses worked against the clock to get the shrapnel out before it could kill her.

And she clutched the necklace tightly when she exited the plane, the plane that carried her away from her years of service. It bounced against her skin as she dropped her bags and ran to embrace her mother, who was waiting for her on the edges of the tarmac.

--------------------

"Moja droga, come here for a minute."

The young woman got up and approached her soon-to-be mother-in-law. "Yes, mama?"

In truth, the young woman's soon-to-be mother-in-law already felt like a mother to her, which was why she addressed her as such; after all, her own mother hadn't been the model parent, drinking in her free time and leaving her daughter to basically fend for herself.

She remembered the first time she had called her fiance's mother mama. It had been in one of their private talks; the two women, despite the age difference, found much in common with each other. The look of delight that had lit up the elder woman's face had been priceless to her. And she didn't even mind the bone-crushing hug she got afterwards. In her eyes, it had been worth it.

In some of their discussions, the elder woman had opened up a bit to the young woman, telling her of her time serving in Vietnam, and her own mother's hardships as a young Polish woman in the middle of World War II. Through these retellings, the younger woman had grown to admire her soon-to-be mother-in-law.

"I have something for you, and, if you accept, I would like you to wear it today, when you walk down the aisle."

Ah, yes, the aisle. That day was the day of the wedding, and she had been getting ready with the elder woman when she had called her over. And, honestly, the young woman had been happy for the interruption; it brought her out of her worries for everything that could possibly go wrong.

The young woman's green eyes sparkled with interest. "What is it?"

The elder woman smiled. "When my mother's mother, or my grandmother, was dying, she gave my mother a necklace. And my mother carried it everywhere with her, at least until she gave it to me."

The young woman tilted her head curiously; she could not see where her mama was going with this.

"And I did the same; I kept the necklace with me everywhere I went, at least until now."

As she said this, the elder woman reached up to the back of her neck and quickly unclasped the necklace. She held it in front of the young woman, just as her mother had done for her.

The young woman's wandered over the necklace, all the way from its thin gold chain to its small, stunning amulet, made of three concentric gold rings, two of which were inscribed, and one which was completely covered by a gemstone the color of both her mama's and her fiance's eyes. It was exquisite.

"I intended to keep the tradition of passing it down to my eldest daughter, but I was gifted with three sons and not one daughter." The elder woman smiled fondly. "But you're to be the wife of my eldest, and I can think of nobody more fitting to carry on the tradition."

The young woman blushed under the praise. "Are you sure, mama? I mean... this must be very valuable to your family."

"I'm sure, my dear. It's my gift to you."

And the young woman nodded, tears in her eyes at the heartfelt gift. She bowed her head before her soon-to-be mother-in-law, and the elder woman clasped it around her neck, working around her honey blonde hair.

Once she was done, the young woman looked down at the amulet, taking a second to admire how right it looked on her white gown.

"That amulet has been through the siege of Warsaw, Polish forced labor, a journey across the Atlantic, and a deployment to Vietnam." The elder woman said softly, staring at the amulet that used to hang around her neck. "And now it will go through even more, with you and any children you may have."

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The woman with green eyes and honey blonde hair lay in bed, her husband at her side, her newly delivered daughter in her arms.

"Jesteś taka śliczna." She mumbled softly to the girl she carried. Even though she didn't have a Polish heritage, she seemed to have picked up the habit of using Polish phrases from her mother-in-law. "You're so beautiful."

"That she is." Her husband whispered in her ear.

The woman absently brought her hand up to touch her great-grandmother's necklace. Just like her grandmother and mother-in-law, she had kept the necklace close to her, throughout her years in the police force. She had always felt a little lighter whenever it bumped against her skin while on the job, as if it were reminding her that her relatives were there with her.

She tore her mind away from her job and gazed down at the little girl in her arms. In her opinion, she was perfect. She had inherited her husband's cornflower blue eyes, and her own honey blonde curls.

"She will look like a spitting image of my grandmother." Her husband remarked.

"Let's hope she never has to go through as much as your grandmother did. Leaving her homeland behind... that must have been hard."

"According to mama, it was, but my grandmother was happy here. Even if she had the chance to go back, she wouldn't have."

The woman just nodded. They sat in silence for a few moments, admiring their little girl, until the woman abruptly broke it.

"Nadzieja."

"What?"

"Her name is Nadzieja."

The woman's husband smiled. "After her great-grandmother."

"Well, you said she looked like her. And it's a pretty name with a beautiful meaning - hope. Your grandmother never gave up hope, not all throughout World War II and the years afterward."

"It's perfect, my love."

The woman looked down at the amulet that hung around her neck, and back at her daughter. She smiled.

One day, this will be my gift to you.

A/N: And that's a wrap! Hope you all liked it... I considered the potential of me elaborating on this, making a story (with chapters) on it, but, for now, I think it will stay a one-shot. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are!

        - Heetal