Family "Heirlooms"

I'm a big fan of heirlooms.  I think it's special to have pieces of furniture and other things, jewelry, china, etc. that were worn or utilized by family members, whether it be only one general ago, or many.  I have my eye on many items my parents have.  Some they purchased through the years and others have been passed down.

One item I especially want is this old nightstand/chest thing in my mom's room.  It's not very fancy or nice quality, it's actually quite beaten up, but the story behind it is wonderful.  When my mom was a teenager, her grandfater decided to get remarried or something along those lines and her mother (my grandmother) was so mad she wouldn't talk to him.  He had some stuff in his house that she wanted, so she loaded my mom and my uncle (who was about 8, I think) into the car and drove over there when she knew the house was vacant.  My conservative, straight laced grandmother kicked in the window of the basement, dropped my uncle down in there and ordered him to come upstairs and unlock the door.  They entered the house and my grandmother stole the things she wanted out of the house, including the chest which has since had a new top put on it because the other one rotted.

The whole time they were breaking, entering, and robbing, my mom was thinking "my mom's gonna get arrested, I've got homework to do and I can't drive a car."  

So I want the chest because of the awesome fact that mom helped loot it from my great grandparents.

M and I went to dinner at my parents house on Sunday.  My parents have decided to spend 2 hours every Saturday purging their attic and cleaning it until it's in decent shape.  This started this past weekend and during dinner my parents asked me if I wanted an "heirloom" punchbowl.  

I say "heirloom" because it was passed down from my grandmother to my mom, but that's about the extent of it.  My grandmother had a neighbor who got too old to run errands and such so their children were going to put them in a nursing home.  My grandmother offered to take their grocery list once a week, buy their groceries and the could reimburse her when she returned.

One day, when Sisi (my grandmother) came to get the grocery list, the lady asked her to pick out punch bowl.  Sisi asked what kind, and I was secretly thinking the lady was waaaaay to old to be entertaining and had no use for a punch bowl.  

The old lady told Sisi to pick out one that she thought looked nice and gave her some money.

Sisi returned to the old lady's home with the punch bowl.  She (the old lady) handed it right back to my grandmother and told her it was a thank you gift for being so sweet and buying their groceries every week.

So when Sisi passed away, my mom couldn't part with the punch bowl, not because it had any sentimental value, but because of the sweet story behind it.  So now I have the same dilemma before myself.  Do I just let my parents donate this punch bowl to Goodwill or let it be sold at a garage sale, or do I take it because of the nice story behind it and let it gather dust in my shit cabinet in the kitchen?  I mean, I don't have a punch bowl, but I generally don't have a use for one.  Maybe if I were throwing lots of showers and such.

 Thoughts?  Do I let it go or take it?