FRANKLIN—A Franklin woman’s memories of her late husband continue to sparkle even after 30 years.

Over the years that Dorothy and Donald Pugh were together, he would periodically give her gifts of jewelry – much of it the costume variety – such as brooches and earrings.

“I was driving a school bus at the time he died,” Pugh remembered. She had later gotten a call that he just fell over at his work place, which was then Union Camp.

Within the first year he died, Pugh got the idea to take the jewelry and make a lasting memento.

“It took me awhile to glue everything together,” she said about the arrangement of jewelry into a Christmas tree.

She pointed out different pieces, such as belt buckles that serve as the trunk, or a favorite pair of earrings set within the tree.

To keep it all clean, Pugh lightly dusts the pieces, taking care not to knock any out of place.

She herself left the school buses behind and went to work at the mill. Her route took her past Donald’s resting place, Southampton Memorial Cemetery.

“I go by every day,” said Pugh, whose work involved roll finishing. That included putting paper on rolls or drums and then cutting them. As mementoes, she still has the plugging hammer, along with a jacket the company gave her on retirement.

“I loved my job,” she said.