Lovely Old Things

I am so happy to have a few items from my grandparents’ home to use and admire at our cottage. This chest of drawers, the mirror and the lamp all came from my mother’s childhood home in Nelson B.C. I grouped them together in one of the bedrooms, where each fulfills a practical purpose, but together they form a bit of a shrine to my grandmother.

I spent part of all the summers of my childhood at her cottage (and still take my family there for a week or two each year) so it is only right that a few of her lovely old things should find a place, all these years later, at mine.

The desk is also useful and fits perfectly into this corner near the kitchen. My grandfather made it for my mother more than 60 years ago. He was a housebuilder and carpenter, and she saw him making it in the basement, without any idea that it was meant for her. On Christmas morning, there it was, beside the tree. There are a few places on the desk where his carpenter’s pencil lines are preserved under the varnish like a fossil in amber.

My grandfather was born in 1884 and served in Belgium in the Great War until discharged at age 34. He became a father in his late 50’s and lived into his 90’s.

When I was a little girl, he would sit on the porch at his cottage and watch us swim in the lake. When I’d had too much sun, he would let me beat him at cribbage. He once bought me a packet of stickers with my name on them and I stuck the biggest, shiniest one on his dashboard so he would think of me each time he got in his car.

I never miss a chance to tell my sons about the memories I associate with some of the things that have been passed down to me. While it isn’t possible or practical to preserve everything, I like to think that something now in our cottage will someday find a lasting home with one of my boys, and will serve as a connection to memories of this time and this place.