Sometimes a gift is unknown, a traveler from another time winding up on the right doorstep—treasures passing hand to hand until a precise moment connects an object to the person it will bring sublime joy.
A beautiful young woman, on the brink of motherhood, hears me exclaim over her childhood tea set.
"Oh! I had a set of these. Well, they weren't really mine. An older cousin loaned them to me when she outgrew tea sets. After her own daughter arrived, she asked for them back."
My friend, in the midst of a brief respite in an eventual 33 hour labor, watches my old-little girl face as I finger the delicate china. Gently cradling a tiny cup, l remember the day the china was returned. Playing teaparty with lukewarm Lipton, was one of the only sweet memories I have carried up from childhood. I do not share those thoughts with her, because in several hours a precious little girl will be born, a child who will be loved in ways I was not.
A few weeks later, we see each other again, the bright new baby in a carrier between us. In her hands, my young friend has a gift. She smiles with knowing-care.
"I thought this would be exactly the right way to say thank you."
Holding the fragile cup I welcome the sweet memory home.
2 comments:
How lovely!!!
Thank you Gabrielle!
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