In about 6 weeks, Kevin & I will celebrate 17 years of marraige. Each year finds changes and growth and reasons to rediscover each other and fall in love all over again. When we first got married, we recieved quite a bit of kitchen related items. I loved then & still love now my Pfaltzgraff Garden Party Pattern & have had fun collecting new pieces over the years.
One of the most cherished gifts, though, was a gift I didn’t actually recieve until this past week. Just a bit past the 3 month Emily Post good manners limit on sending in late presents, no? (btw, I’m still working on Leila’s gift. I should have it done just under the limit. No telling!)
Just before my wedding in 1993, I spent some time with my great grandmother Rose. She wanted to give me something for my wedding & told me she wanted for me to have something of hers. She was 89 years old & knew that our time together was most likely short. She wanted me to have something that would remind me of her whenever I used it. After an afternoon of rootbeer floats & giggling about silly things, she told me that she wanted me to have her silver service. An unimaginably heartfelt gift, the sterling silver service set for 24 was something she had scrimped and saved and bought one piece at a time over untold years. It was brought out from it’s beautiful box at every large family dinner and lovingly stored away until the next special occasion. On that afternoon in 1993, she told me that if I were to start collecting the Oneida Michelangelo design, that I could have her service set upon her death. Which happened heartbreakingly only 2 years later.
I’ll skip over most of the next part of the story & just let you know that it’s something I laugh about now. When Grandma died the set was, um…hijacked….by one of my relatives. I chose to take the high road & not name names, but you may be able to put 2 and 2 together for yourself. I also choose to let this part of the story make me smile as the hijacker was just silly like that & she emensly enjoyed the set for the past 15 years as my family gathered together to share meals with increasingly more and more place settings at the table. My mama made sure as we packed up the car in Arkansas this past week to head back home that my final wedding gift was safely stowed on board.
Just yesterday, I removed all of my imitation Brahms (bought from the Betty Crocker catalog. Do you remember that?) cutlery & replaced my silverware drawer with the beloved Michaelango. Grandma used it only for “special”, but I chose to use it for everyday. And just as I think of her everytime I use her blue ceramic mixing bowl to make a batch of cookies with my kids, I’ll now get the chance to think of her every time I open the silverware drawer. I love you Grandma Rose & have missed you over the years!
Here’s a picture of her with Kevin & I on our wedding day.
By the way, if you don’t remember the story from earlier postings, my Grandma taught me to sew. The dress she is wearing here was the last one she ever made. My wedding dress is the first one I ever designed.
And? Kevin is looking quite studly, no? Swoon.
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