Patti Sensenbrenner

Seventeen years ago I went to New Mexico to visit Karen. We had been friends since seventh grade and roomed together at the university. She lives in Santa Fe, which is fairly close to Madrid, a small town which gained notoriety since being featured in the 2007 John Travolta film "Wild Hogs."

Madrid isn't much, population under 1000, but famous enough to draw in a sufficient number of tourists to support a couple of gift shops and a restaurant.

The first shop, all kitsch, but the second shop looked quite interesting. Although not intending to buy anything, I was naturally drawn to the jewelry where I admired a man's necklace, a single boar's tooth suspended in a silver base enhanced with a turquoise stone. Keeping to my intention, I left the store empty handed.

That night I couldn't stop thinking about that necklace. When I told Karen I simply had to have it, she graciously drove me back to Madrid the next morning.

Looking at the necklace you might wonder what I found so compelling about it. To understand I must tell you something about my grandmother, whom I never met, by the way, since she died when my mother was three. Her name was Florence Keiler Ladd. She named my mother Jean Keiler Falk, and my daughter was named Keiler Jean Sensenbrenner.

Keiler was in high school when she found out that keiler in German means wild boar. What alarming news that was. How amazing that I should run across a necklace sporting a boar's tooth (correctly called a tusk). Of course I had to go back to that odd little town and claim what was so clearly calling my name.

The story doesn't end there. Keiler gave birth to her daughter wearing the keiler tusk necklace. Some day it will be hers, but I will enjoy being the keeper of the power necklace until then. It helps me remember the women in my past, present and future, strong and connected in ways often hidden.