B”h, now that I am a Bubby, I present each one of my einiklach with their own leather siddur upon which their name is inscribed.
Personally, I have a weekday Artscroll as well as a Shabbos and Yom Tov one. I have also inherited my dear father’s personal siddur, which is quite fragile. When my mother, gave me a birthday check some years back, I purchased a smaller Shabbos/Yom Tov siddur and asked her to inscribe it for me. I have to admit that each week when I open the siddur, I can’t resist smiling when I read how Mommy addressed me as her “Dearest Peninah.” (Yes, she underlined the “h!)
I gather that my mother never recovered from my singular independent act.
When I was in the fourth grade, I deleted the “h” at the end of my name. When I got working papers, a passport, as well as, my marriage license, I officially changed the spelling, which deleted the “h” legally. I guess Mommy was still trying to express her disapproval!
In any event, from all of my traveling to visit my kids, the siddurim have not weathered the trips too well, so when I attended the annual seforim sale at YU, I treated myself to a traveling siddur. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, when I “visited” Mommy in the beis ha’Chayim, it got lost.
I went to the local Judaica store and the helpful salesman ordered one for me.
My birthday was approaching, so I asked my husband to see if the siddur had been delivered. When he got to the store, no one knew anything about the order because the salesman had gone for the day.
I was disappointed, but not for long.
When my children came for dinner that night, my daughter had a small bag for me from the Judaica store.
As she greeted me, she handed me an “early birthday gift…”
The salesman had mentioned to her that I had ordered it and she purchased it for me as a surprise birthday present.
How nice to see that the family minhag continues from generation to generation!