Sunday, December 1, 2019

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 48 Prompt - Thief

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 48
Prompt – Thief

I have decided to recycle and reuse a previous blog from last year's Ancestor's blog on Heirloom. It seemed very fitting to this week's prompt.
When I was first married, my grandmother Mary McLaughlin was still living. This would have been in the mid to late 1970's. She was quite lucid but did experience some forgetfulness from time to time. One evening while my husband and I were visiting for tea she noticed me admiring her china cabinet and her beautiful china with in. She pointed and talked about a few pieces of china when she decided to give me a tea cup and saucer which she said she had since she was first married to Benny and was a gift from him. The funny thing is that for the life of me I can't remember much about its design. I vaguely recall maybe a yellow rose design but not much else. Pity! I gingerly took this almost 50 year old cup and saucer home. She lived in Saskatoon and at the time I lived in Regina.
A few months down the road I receive a frantic call from my grandmother. First of all this was in the mid 1970's. I had never received a call from my grandmother ever before. Long distant phone calls were expensive and rarely done except in extreme circumstances. Grandmother was beside herself because she could not find her special tea cup and saucer that Benny had given her. She told me that she heard from one of my siblings that I had it. She really wanted to know why I took it and basically was accusing me of stealing it from her house. I was flabbergasted and bewildered. I tried to tell her that she had given it to me as a keepsake, but she was not buying it. Later that week my mother called me asking me what was going on with this tea cup and saucer. I explained the story and we decided that I would return it to her on my next visit to Saskatoon. My grandmother was happy to get it back and she still had no recollection of giving it to me.
I have never seen the cup and saucer since that time. My mother died before grandmother. When grandmother died she had just her one son, Wally, living. He came to Saskatoon and cleaned out her home and very few heirloom type belongings were ever passed on to my siblings and I .
My dear grandmother was such a loving and kind soul. It did cause me to think about aging and losing one's memories. Further I wondered just how intricately one's memory is attached to physical things. In my grandmother's case the loss of a special tea cup and saucer must have seemed like a loss of someone she held near and dear to herself.
I may not have the physical heirloom tea cup and saucer, but I do have one heck of a story and a memory that takes up very little physical space.
My Sweet Grandmother in 1970's - Mary McLaughlin Nee Krikau

Wendy

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