Friday, December 01, 2006

KEEPSAKES

KEEPSAKES

Aside

There are some Christmas cards I could never throw away; the last one from my late mother; a snow scene of Scotney Castle Garden
‘All love Mum oxo.’ (Mum was famous for her oxo – two hugs and a kiss). the last one from my late sister in law
‘Please note Indian motif in brass on front.’ (we had just had a holiday in India) and the illustrated cards below – or above according to Blogger’s whim.

I am so glad I kept these – some of the Christmas cards I have had over the years from my friend Judy Powe; a gifted writer and illustrator despite being crippled with arthritis, cataracts and amputations.  The cards are prints from her originals.  Judy died last week.  R.I.P.

13 comments:

apprentice said...

What a lovely idea to look back like that. Pat you're so good at keeping things and more importantly knowing where to find them!
I wish I was as organised. My most poignant thing is an envelope addressed to me by my brother, he never did get to write the letter to go in.

Pat said...

apprentice: I'm not really organised but keep cards till the next year and then discard as I send them - but these I have always hung on to. I do understand about your brother. Mine only really wrote to me towards the end of his life, before he was unable to.

Z said...

I have the only letter I ever received from my father (brief and business-like as it was) and the only Valentine card I ever had from my husband - that's a humdinger, it's a Victorian one and he destroyed its value by writing in it, that's true love for you!

I can't throw away the last Christmas card from a friend who has died during the year. I need to write a new address book, but the old one is too full of memories.

Pat said...

Z: I suspected i wasn't the only one.
Some years back I was telling my sister abut a letter I had had from my father. She said,plaintively, she had never had one and I told her I thought you had to break your leg first - which I had done!
Mu address book also is falling to bits but I can no longer write legibly. Perhaps another job for MTL although goodness knows how many years that would take!

Dr Maroon said...

There are some who can throw out all their cards after twelfth night without a backward glance. There are others, including me who find it difficult. And then there’s the selection. This one looks expensive seems a waste to chuck it so soon, while this one is maybe particularly thoughtful or witty or from an old college chum. In the end they all go in the bin, leaving a guilty angst for an hour or two or until it’s time for kirs and thoughts of the summer to come.
Letter writing is virtually finished now but this blogging lark makes up for it.
I never bin letters. I’ve got tons.

Pat said...

Doc; glad you are just a softie at heart. Rather than bin them we use them for lists. Well we both have Scots blood - especially himself!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Those cards are delightful. Rest in peace, Judy.

Pat said...

Thanks GG!

TLP said...

I, too, am keeping old address books that include my deceased sisters and my Mama. To remove their names and addresses would be to kill them off in my mind.

I wasn't close to my father. But, like you, I have one letter from him. That's one more letter than my three sisters ever received from the man.

Pat said...

Tan lucy pez: I think as long as you have a mind they will be there. I wonder with your father if you also had to break a leg first?

Pat said...

Keith: My second mother in law was an avid knitter like your mother and we still have woolly hats and sweaters and different sized tea cosies for our latge collection of tea-pots - all in use. She would unravel old garments and knit them up again. With all that knitting - in her late seventies - her hands were the hands of a forty year old.
I really appreciated Glen Miller and 'In the Mood' is in my head now at 5.40 in the morning!

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

Commiserations, Pat. It's hard when a friend dies because a part of you dies too, the part you shared with them and nobody else.

Pat said...

Thank you Zinnia. Her three children have decided the funeral is family only and will be a woodland burial, which is very Judy.