Impressions

Today I have a guest blogger!  Brought to you all the way from Willow Park, Texas...none other than "Nana."  Stevi Fenton is my mother-in-law, but she is affectionately known as Nana :)  This Christmas she gave me and my sister-in-law, Amy, a special mug.  It was a Fire King jadeite "D" handled mug.  This mug was just like the mug she saw her Mother drink from.  She shared with us, in a letter packaged with the mug, the memories she had as a young girl. And I share them with you now:


"This particular used mug brings to mind a story that belongs to this family and I want to make sure our children's children have a vivid image in their heads to pass down in their own oral history, as vivid as if I had painted it with oil on canvas.


Stevi got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen where it was warm.  She was three or four years old and what she sees in the kitchen is not etched in her life memories because it was unique or shocking, but because it's what she saw every morning when the weather was cool.  The perimeter of heat from a stove like a wall of warm air was the indicator of how long her mama had been up and stirring.  Still in her cotton gown and house coat, the chrome and yellow vinyl dinette chair pulled closer to the oven so Mary could prop her feet up on the oven door to warm them.  She never went barefoot.  She always wore chenille slippers.


Unaware that her youngest child had entered the room and was watching her, Mary sat with the Bible in her lap.  She didn't leave her family that singular Bible where she recorded her countless insights in the margins of the scriptures.  The Word is fluid and alive and she always gave her bibles away.  Some of her notations can be found in homes of Australians, New Zealanders, Brazilians and South Africans.


Stevi was watching her mother's hands, they were her defining features.  She had long fingers, strong yet delicate and they flew into the air every time someone wanted to take a photo of her, as if she used them to frame her face.  This morning as most mornings they caressed a cup of coffee, a jadeite mug that had probably been left by a previous tenant.  She held the mug with both hands.  Since she was left handed she clutched the "D" handle mug in her left hand.  The thumb of her right hand balanced the bottom edge of the mug while her right index finger touched the rim.  Both little fingers with their long nails were held out in dainty fashion.  I think she held every mug that way from then on.




It would be this memory that came flooding back many years later when I found a Fire King jadeite "D" handled mug in an antique store.  I couldn't wait to get it home and drink coffee out of it the very way my mother did years ago.  I poured the coffee into the mug and raised it to my lips to discover that there was a reason why mother held the mug in such a fashion.  Those mugs were hot to the touch and the only place to touch them without burning your fingers was the handle, the bottom edge where the glass was thicker, and the rim.  Her coffee drinking style turned out to be primarily practicality, and it made me laugh out loud.  Enjoy drinking from my mama's cup!"


Love you,
Nana

This is me in my usual weepy state when receiving something sentimental...

Nana demonstrating how her Mother held her coffee cup :)

Thought Nana sharing her memories of her mother's hand and the way she held her mug was a great second part of the thoughts I shared about my mother's hands.

Again, so funny the things we notice about the ones we spend so much time with and how we carry those with us the rest of our lives.  Is it funny to you how hands have made an impact?  

I know something else that makes an even bigger impression than our hands. Our words.  While I gather my thoughts about that...maybe you can spend some time thinking about your words, your hands, your actions, things about you that YOU think make an impression on others.

Thank you, Nana, for sharing your memories...and thanks for my new mug!!!! :)