Homebodies - Hold the items in your heart and mind
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- Published on Sunday, July 12, 2015
By Rita Friesen
The Neepawa Banner
I quite prattle on about downsizing; the merits, my efforts and the necessity. In all that I harbour a secret – there are items in my home, on the shelves or tucked in cupboards that I am reluctant to part with. I wash them, I dust them and never re-arrange them. Three of the items have no history, with me.
The plate on display in my room has two sisters that hide in the kitchen, top shelf. Eight inches in diameter, a rather minty blue ring an inch in, and then a gold circle and within the curve of the plate another, wider, mint blue half inch in depth marking. On the back, under a symbol of a crown, Myott, Son & Co .Ltd. And then in golden gilt Hand Painted 2177 B. I have no history for the plates but know that they were a part of the household when I married Ed, many years ago.
On top of the plate sits a cup and saucer set. They have no markings but are the same calming shade of colour as the plate. The handle is a glistening golden colour and so they look very much like family members! Have no clue where the cup and saucer came from and so, with me not being much of a keeper of things, I wonder why the set speaks to me. And there on the shelf, in full view when I am resting, is a creamer. It is larger than a tea set size.
Once again the minty blue with golden bands is repeated. Worn golden rim and markings on the handle tell me the unit was loved and used, and survived its mate, the sugar bowl. It also has a ‘made in England’ traced in its base. I spend some time wondering why these three pieces, well, four if you count the cup and saucer separately, mean so much to me. Is it the colours, the gentle flowing movement to the glass, or a distant memory of a simpler time?
The other set, hidden high in the cupboard, is a cut glass set – a larger heart shaped bowl with six matching little dishes. And when I say heart shaped, right down to the cupids arrow. Was it a custard set? I do know that it was my mothers, a wedding gift if I recall correctly. I have used it probably six times in my lifetime. Red Jell-O on Valentines Day. And so these nested glass dishes sit gathering dust. I wish someone in the family would want them! Behind those same closed doors are two cut glass pickle dishes and one candy, I think, dish shaped like a halved apple. That came from my paternal grandmother, but the others are of unknown origin.
There will be weighty decisions to be made when the time comes to pack up this household! Take a picture, hold the items in my heart and mind, or pack them up and take them along. Again.
