Heirlooms

I get a lot of joy from my family heirlooms.  Last Thanksgiving we served turkey on a platter that once belonged to my Great Grandmother, Leila Grace Witherspoon Webster.  The platter was from her wedding china, hand-painted by her sister in law, my Great Aunt Blanche Webster.

The carrots and stuffing were served in bowls from the set of china my Dad bought just after World War II in "occupied Japan".  The gravy was in my Grandma Finch's gravy boat & the rolls in George's mother's silver bread basket. 

I like to imagine my Great Aunt Blanche (I knew her) painting a set of china as a wedding gift for her brother Ed and his wife to be.  I picture my Daddy leaving his navy ship to shop in "occupied Japan" for a gift for his future wife.  My parents didn't get married until 1948.  Did Daddy have my mother in mind when he picked out the china?  Or did he picture someone else to be the recipient of this gift?  Or was it really intended for his mother, my Grandma?  It is her gravy boat that I use & it is not "fine china".  Grandma was a wonderful cook & in the tradition of many great cooks, never used a recipe.  I gave up trying to learn to make her light fluffy biscuits when she kept saying things like, "you just add the shortening until it looks right".   Would she be happy that the gravy I put in her gravy boat is homemade and not something from one of the  prepackaged gravy mixes?  And would she be proud of my homemade biscuits, even though they don't hold a candle to hers?  I can visualize George's Mom excitedly catching up with her college age children just home for Christmas from BYU as she set the table & used her pretty bread basket.

"Heirlooms are a conduit of love passed down through the generations."