84 years ago, my mother became a newlywed. She received a set of silver as a wedding gift. This week, I held a fork from that original silver set and used it to eat a lovely meal prepared by my daughter and her husband who now have in their possession that old silver fork and other items from my mother’s kitchen.
As I looked at the fork, I saw the “E” engraved at the top of the fork indicating my mother’s new name, Elkins, which was taken on the date of her marriage to my father. Both of my parents are now with the Lord. I paused and considered what I was holding. I felt a sweet connection take place holding the fork in my hand.
When the fork was first used 84 years ago, it fed a new husband who returned each day from his work in construction followed by numerous guests who visited my parent’s home in the years before the kids were born. In the following years as our family formed, my mother would set our dinner table each night and feed her family with that fork and others like it. The fork would eventually be used to feed the additions to our family like the new wives of her sons and the grandchildren that were added to our family.
As the years rolled on the silver set experienced wear and tear from use and eventual loss. The fork I held at dinner is the last surviving piece of my mother’s 84-year-old silver set. The night we had dinner with our daughter and her husband, Anna placed the fork where she thought I would sit at the dinner table. When I picked up the fork and realized what I was holding, memories began to flood my mind of all the meals and times of laughter we had that surrounded the use of that fork and others like it.
The fork reminds me of what it means to live a good life. Much of what we all started out with is now gone, including some of our loved ones and a few special possessions, but the memories that surrounded them remain. It’s just like the Lord to bring to us something we thought was long gone as a reminder of what was good and loving in our lives. A single fork, an old letter, or a long-lost photo can open the floodgates of our memories.
That single fork was more poignant to me than having the entire set of silver still intact. The fork is a survivor that came to me to stir my pool of memories. Those memories became a reminder of the loving history of a family who made it through times of abundance and loss and times of birth and death. It is a physical reminder of the enduring nature of the love of family and the goodness of God.
“Stirring a pool of memories”
What luscious verbiage upon which to sip
I appreciate the prompting and invitation
My grandfather amassed am enormous archive of houseware, tools, trinkets, even cars!
As a boy it struck me as an obsession about “things”, but over the years I found the real truth. He could point to any one of those things and tell whole life stories of the people he had known in his long and joyful life. They were a museum of all that God had done in his life.
It’s good to remember that God also gave us this material world as a part of His message of love to us.
Powerful reminder of the love that lasts, my mother died at age 103 in 2015, her set of silver was given to my daughter who died in December 2022. Cleaning out her apartment, the silver set returned to me, a set I recall using all my life, first in Chicago, then in California, Hawaii, and now in Oregon. Memories flood as I see this lasting reminder, knowing it is only a token of the Love God has for us forever.
So Beautiful 💕
The power of remembrance can be life altering. Too often we are captured by the tyranny of the urgent and don’t take time to sit and enjoy the memories of loved ones who gave so much that we may enjoy life.