Off the Cuff Memories

by Jill Cousins

Jason Mendelsohn always found men’s clothing to be pretty boring, so he never missed an opportunity to spice up his wardrobe. For many years, he wore stylish hats with matching shoes. He’s also been known to wear customized clothing, like the sports jacket with pictures of his family inside or his suit with a bottle of whiskey on the back.

Then, about 10 years ago, Jason’s mother gave him six pairs of his grandfather’s cufflinks, and he was inspired once again. Whenever he had the chance to dress up, Jason would put on his signature outfit — jeans, wingtip shoes, vest, and a buttoned-down French cuff shirt... with his granddad’s cufflinks.

“I’ve always liked having fun clothes to wear – or at least what I thought was fun,” says Jason, 52, president of a life insurance appraisal company in Maitland. “I’ve always loved cufflinks and found them to be interesting. When my mom gave me some of my grandfather’s cufflinks, I realized this is fun stuff. It feels good to wear them, and there’s meaning behind it.”

The married father of three – and cancer survivor – would put cufflinks on when he took his family to cultural events in Orlando or when he was making a business presentation. When he began sharing his cancer survival story at public speaking events, Jason always made sure to put on a pair of his grandfather’s cufflinks.

“Those cufflinks gave me the confidence I needed to stand in front of people because I knew I had someone with me,” says Jason, who has been an advocate for HPV vaccines since he survived stage 4 oral cancer caused by the virus in 2014. J Life magazine wrote about his SupermanHPV.com initiative back in 2018. “It made me feel like I wasn’t going out there alone.”

When Jason’s friends saw his cufflinks, they would often share the same story: They had their father’s or grandfather’s cufflinks in the house somewhere, usually tucked away in a drawer, but they never wore them. (Author’s note: I am one of these people, too.  I keep three pairs of my grandfather’s cufflinks in a zipper snack bag in a drawer in my bedroom. He passed away at age 86 in 1991, but the cufflinks give me a tangible connection to him and his memory.)

A few months ago, Jason had an idea. He would make a post on Facebook asking if anyone had cufflinks they were not using and would consider giving to him. In return, Jason vowed to wear the cufflinks and make a post about them, telling the story behind each pair.

In October 2021, Jason made his first post, with a photo of his favorite pair of cufflinks, one that his grandfather wore in the 1940s.

”I truly love them,” Jason said of his affinity for cufflinks in his post. “Whatever you do, don’t throw them away or give them away to people that won’t appreciate them like I will.”

Shortly after his initial post, Jason received his first pair of donated cufflinks from a woman in New York. She was a friend of a friend of a nurse who was given a pair of cufflinks by a man in his late 90s who had no heirs. The friend gave the woman the cufflinks because she was crafty, but when she couldn’t figure out what to do with them, she decided to send them to Jason. He then wore them proudly to an Orlando Philharmonic event.

Jason has since received about 20 sets of cufflinks (doubling his stash to 40), from family members, friends, neighbors, and strangers. The cufflinks were piling up on a credenza in his home office until Jason’s wife Ronni bought him a couple of display cases to neatly store them.

When Jason recently attended a family bar mitzvah in Baltimore, Maryland, a cousin handed him four sets of cufflinks she collected from family members.

“I think cufflinks are so interesting; that’s the most important thing,” Jason says. “Eventually, I hope people from all over the country and around the world send me their cufflinks, and I can share their stories. For me, it’s an honor.”

Jason does have some favorites, like his grandfather’s tiger-eye cufflinks and a pair with violins he recently bought to wear to his son Adam’s orchestra concerts. And even though he doesn’t have a specific cufflink rotation, Jason insists that he wears them all.

“I can’t imagine I would ever have too many,” Jason says. “My wife might imagine that because we have a very clean house. She might get to the point where she says, ‘I think we have enough!’ But I’m not even thinking that would happen.”