A Pottery Owl

[poliphilo]

My mother indicates the pottery owl on her chest of drawers. "Do you remember?" she asks. "You walked miles to buy that."

Indeed I do. But I'm surprised she does.

And pleased, of course. Sometimes I think she's no longer here and then there'll come a flash like this which shows she is.

It was half a century ago and I'd have been about 12.  We were on holiday at Tarr Steps in Somerset and it was her birthday the following day and I hadn't got anything to give her, so I took off in the afternoon and walked to Dulverton- a distance of something like eight miles there and back. A stretch of  the path lay along the river valley. It was very lonely- and I had to go past a ruined house with a history (did my sister and I make this up or was it an authentic tradition?) of suicide and haunting.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It tends to be the memories furthest back that last the longest. :o)

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

That's charming. Both the owl and the story.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

How lovely -- the owl, the walk, and flash of remembrance.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That is a very lovely owl form your 12 year old self and it is quite wonderful that your mother retains that particular memory.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

My Favorite Pilgrim does this, too. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, she will ask me about something that I told her about in my first year of seminary... something that I had totally forgotten until she brings it up.

That was a sweet story. It must be so hard to see your mother passing away so very slowly...

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Kids often buy terrible presents for their parents, but I really like this owl!

[suemars.livejournal.com]

love the story...and the owl. they're back in fashion now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's very true.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes. It brightened my evening.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm also touched that she's kept it by her bed all these years.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This came out of nowhere. My mother has never been one for dwelling in the past.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I had some taste, I guess.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

You did indeed. I doubt I managed anything this well-chosen at the same age. It's a very handsome owl, and a lovely flash of your mother's presence.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking the owl would have looked- not exactly modernistic- but quite a la mode back in 1963.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a pleasing, tactile little thing.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

It's a pleasing reminder of who you were and of what your relationship with your mother was then.

Also, just the fact that your mother remembers it... I doubt I have given my mother very many gifts she remembers even in her present cognitively competent state!

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

That was wonderful ... both the long-ago story, and the current one.

[heatherp8.livejournal.com]

lovely memory. the gift gave another gift, that of shared remembrance. What could be sweeter?