Silver
I had to run into Carle and get some bloodwork done earlier.The place was packed….with a line out the door. I groaned inside but the linemoved along and eventually I sat down to wait. There were several older couplessitting together. An older woman sat in a wheelchair to the side. Her growndaughter was in a chair next to her, leaning forward so she could talk to hermother. I found it hard not to stare at them because I recognized the daughter’sposture so clearly….there’s not really room for a wheelchair pulled up evenlyso you have to put it a bit forward and then you feel as though you need tolean forward, holding the paperwork and your purse in your lap, so you can talkto your mother and she doesn’t feel as though she’s sitting alone in front ofeveryone. Another woman was there with her father….walker and oxygen tank attheir side. I heard her check her fatherin; he was born in 1919.
It felt so familiar as I watched that woman lean forward totalk to her mother…and the other woman move the walker and oxygen so someoneelse could sit down. It felt so deeply familiar---I mean I could feel thememories of my body moving that way….and yet it was so distant and foreign atthe same time. Sometimes I feel as though it was a different me that wentthrough those years with my parents and my sister.
Over the weekend I sorted through all the silver I have. Ipolished some of it and got it all organized in their little flannel bags. Ilove those little flannel bags. I loved looking at the names of the differentjewelry stores….in Boston, in Portland, in Brockton, Massachusetts and Manchester, New Hampshire. Theyspeak so strongly to me of my mother’s family. Ernie cleaned up mygrandmother’s silver chest and we put the sterling back into it. I remembersetting the table from that silver chest in my grandparents’ dining room inMaine. It seemed so exotic. And I swear I can almost smell the mysterious scent that was alwaysinside their sideboard.
One year when I was in college Ernie and I visited my grandfather. I went toset the table and found the silver chest empty. I asked my grandfather where hekept the silver now and he couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Thesilver had been stolen. I called the police and a police officer came out tothe house. My grandfather was so upset and shaken. I’d forgotten all about thatuntil my mother mentioned it a few years back. She told me my grandfather hadbeen so impressed with the way I took charge. It’s funny….I barely remember iteven now. The police found the missing silver in the alley a week later andback into the silver chest it went. And my grandfather finally changed the lockon their side door. Up until that point it had still used the original skeleton key. Ihave that skeleton key somewhere.
I showed Owen the set of sterling and told him that it wouldgo to him, along with the silver chest with my grandmother’s initials. He, ofcourse, was delighted. I wasn’t sure about Leo but as I sat there polishing afew things and chatting to him I mentioned something about ‘his silver.’ Heasked me what I meant so I showed him the set of silverplate I waspolishing….with the monogram of ‘N’ for Nelson on the handles. I told them thatthey would go to him someday as his middle name is Nelson. He said "wow" and smiled so hard that I thought my heart would crack.