November  27, 2017 – Silk Fall leaves and memories

        Last month, going through the motions of ‘breaking up household’ at my Mom and Dad’s home, I had to sift through all the things in their life – letters, cards, photos, dishes, pots, pans, candles, linen napkins, etc., and then the drawer or two of seasonal decorations – other than Christmas decorations.

        Most of what was in the drawer I had an exact duplicate in my seasonal stash.

        Years ago, when the various dollar stores starting popping up in this county I starting finding delightful trinkets for myself and my Mom.  Seasonal trays, dishes, and decorations.   My Mom didn’t get out to shop much in the last 20 years and knowing this, I’d send her a gift box of Shamrock stickers for her windows, or those honeycomb heart shaped decorations.  

You get the idea, as the seasons rolled around, I’d buy something for my house to decorate and I’d get the same for my Mom and pop it in the mail – yes that old fashioned thing called “snail mail”.  I always would send the package “unannounced.”

        “You shouldn’t have,” Mom would say when she telephoned with sheer delight in her voice which was directly opposite of what the words were. [Of course, I should – Mom - I always thought.]

        One year at one of those dollar stores – about 20 years ago, I found a clear plastic box that had silk fall leaves in yellows and oranges.  Of course, the price was right and I snapped up a container.  There were oodles of them, so I sent half of them home by mail to my Mom and she was delighted.

        Me, I sprinkle them out on kitchen table and mantel and on end tables for fall interest – it satisfies the little kid in me. 

        Well, as I was saying, I was cleaning out the seasonal drawer at Mom’s  home and came up on her bag of silk leaves.  I fingered it and noticed she had a dozen or so real acorns among them.  It made me smile as I had seen her display of two plastic squirrels with the acorns and leaves sprinkled about flanked by papier-mâché pumpkins in several sizes. Yes, that is where I got this decorating habit.

        Having company in this Thanksgiving I pulled out my silk leaves, I have heads of wheat instead of acorns mixed in, and I sprinkled them all around the buffet station where the spread of food would be.  Around the turkey platter, the potato and squash chafing dishes – the full length of the bar they contrasted so nice on the overlapped white napkins.  I really didn’t think too much about it – even when I am making Thanksgiving dinner for just my husband and myself – I do the same thing.

        But my guests this year were – delighted, amazed and extremely vocal about it.  In a word, they were “wowed”.

        This holiday was hard for me – pulling out the beautiful dishes and things given to me over the years by my Mom for entertaining. I had to pause and breathe deeply a few times to fight back the tears.  Someone mentioned the nice linen napkins and I answered,

        “They were Mom’s, soft aren’t they from years and years of use.”  Most at table knew my Mom had just died in October.

        As I said before Mom, you will always be with me, through the memories or items you’ve given me.  Who would want to escape such fond memories?