Thank-you so much to Sian, who is hosting her wonderful Story-Telling Sunday this year on the theme of Pick Your Precious. There are many treasures and stories to be enjoyed there, so do take a cup of tea with you and settle down for a while! This is my contribution ...
We'd seen it a few times, me and Mum, in a local second-hand-cum-antiques shop. "It'd look lovely on top of your old mahogany chest", she whispered and we smiled at each other for we both loved anything with little drawers and compartments. "I know", I whispered back, "But have you seen the price?". We didn't even reach over to look inside. We hummed and haa-d, and went away. Several times. Months later, touching the array of silk threads and buttons my father passed on to me after she died, collections handed down through several generations on both sides of the family, I thought again of the little chest. "Perhaps I'll go and look at it again one day next week", I mused, for my Saturday morning was already full of must-do-todays. Suddenly, I was gripped with an absolute conviction that it could not wait. Within a moment, I found myself in the car clutching my bag, without even a coat in the autumn rain.
The bell jangled as I opened the shop door and, squeezing between the groups of visiting browsers, I breathlessly headed for the far corner. It wasn't there. An old radiogram stood in its place. I looked around desperately. It really wasn't there ...
"Can I help you?" the owner enquired. She smiled a little uncertainly, and I could see she was trying to place me, for Mum and Dad had bought several things there during the year. "I think it's gone", I said, hoping the crack in my voice was not audible and brushing away the drips from my hair. "There used to be a little chest here with lots of drawers ...". "Well, d'you know", she said, "I've had it for years and no-one's ever been interested! That's two of you in one day! This morning a lady came in and wanted to see it. It's over here, look!" and she pointed to the end of the glass-topped counter. "She took it over to the better light by the door". Hardly daring to hope, I asked "She didn't want it then?" The owner waggled her head in a perhaps-yes-perhaps-no kind of way. "Well, she said was going home to measure up, and she'd come back later." She was eyeing me carefully. "But if you are interested ..."
She was going to leave a pause but I jumped in. "Yes, I
am", I said clearly. "I'd like to buy it." The shop owner smiled. "Have
you seen inside the little drawers?" She showed me: each drawer a
slightly different depth, with inner compartments in different sizes,
and tiny labels written in a childish hand. "I think it originally held a
collection of birds' eggs", she confided. "The other lady was going to
rip them out". "I won't be doing that", I said. "I know exactly what I'm
going to put in it ..."
And I did. It sits just where Mum thought it would, holding the things she used, loved and saved. Things touched by her hands, and generations of seamstresses and embroiderers in our family before her ... See the lower edge? There's a little space there, under the bottom drawer. Inside, I will tape a copy of the photo and this post, so that my own daughter will one day have this story too. Some things are too precious not to be shared ...
