A July 6/17 article by a fellow blogger, Anvilcloud, caused me to reflect on some of the items I have from my mother. Anvilcloud mentioned, “Nobody wants your stuff,” in the blogpost. While I realized the same years ago after Mom died, AC gave me reason to pause.
My mother was never one to acquire anything fancy. She used what she had, then disposed of the remains. However, she valued bone China tea cups and had many which she left to me. I use them often and think of Mom every time. Similarly, I use my own China and crystal regularly and enjoy it.
Anything I have would be passed on to our daughter and grandchildren. However, they will not want that stuff. The question became how to use Mom’s cups with the children today?
The solution presented itself recently when Caitlin and Sylvie, ages four and six, visited for the weekend. They always play tea party, using a play tea set and plastic sweets. But this time, we made muffins, as we often do and had a tea party using Mom’s China cups.
Each girl picked out the cup she wanted and we drank juice-tea from the fancy cups which came from their great grandmother. We talked about the etiquette of a fancy tea and ate muffins but giggled a great deal. We practised how to avoid slurping or dinging the cup with the spoon, as we gently stirred our tea. What better use could those cups ever have? Fancy tea parties will be a regular occurrence now.
Mom would have been thrilled!
Thanks, AC.