Mother's Day 2015

In honor of mothers I want to share my husband’s story about his mother. As you will guess, the little boy in the story is my husband.

The China Dishes

I want to tell you a story about a little boy who I knew that lived in a rural farming community not far from here, clear back in the 1950’s. Those that are old enough to recall those times will likely agree there just wasn’t the abundance of  household items that we see today. This was before the days of CorningWare, back to the days of parlors and hope chests filled with special china, which was often handed down from one generation to the next. Picture if you will, a formal Sunday setting with relatives gathered and the very best this country family could assemble for a table setting. The china pattern was a rose made in the USA by Ballerina and was the prize possession of this little boy’s mother, having been purchased by her parents as a wedding gift to her. Well, the meal had ended and some had gone to the living room to visit while others had begun to clean up the dishes, busily working in the kitchen. Everyone seemed to be doing something including the little 5-year-old boy who wanted to get in on the post-meal family activities. Well,the table, which had been the center of the festivities, consisted of a center section with two drop leaves on each end. One of the favorite things for the children in this family to do was to crawl under the table and release the latch, allowing the leaves to drop to the folded position. In his exuberance to get to that lever first, he simply overlooked the fact that the china dinner plates were still stacked in a pile about 10 or so high on the leaf. With one simple little push the brace folded and the china plates crashed to the linoleum floor in varying degrees of shattered glass. In one moment the greatest part of the cherished china became bits and pieces. As one might expect upon realizing or discovering the substantial nature of his error the little boy began to cry and crawl back under the table. The extent of the tragedy spread to the kitchen where this little boy’s mother was washing and carefully putting the dishes away. And it must have broken her heart to hear and then see the remnants of her once complete set of china. This mother though wasn’t much concerned about her dishes. What she did was gather up her sobbing little boy and explain that she was forgiving of his foolish mistake and that it would be all right, it was only dishes. This good lady never had a full set of china for the rest of her life, but she practiced, knew and taught more about forgiveness in about 1 minute than most of us will learn in a lifetime.