Friday Tidings

I found the four-leaf clover in an unusual place. A small clover had been sealed between two small plastic discs and then encircled with a gold-colored band. The thinnest gold chain served as a necklace. As I held it, I wondered how old it was. I’d found the clover necklace in my great-grandfather’s Bible.    My aunt had given me the Bible when I had visited her. Grampy, as I called my great-grandfather, had been a man of quiet faith. The Bible was worn—not just with age, but with use.    As a child, Grampy had been a bonus grandpa to me. He could hardly hear, and his vision wasn’t much better, but we both loved spending summertime at the family lake cabin.    At home, he’d sit and listen as I played the piano. Even with my marginal skills, he was my most appreciative audience.   He was part of every family gathering, and his loud laughter made everyone else laugh. Grampy passed on when I was thirteen—long before I knew how valuable his stories were. ...

It was one of those sunny, but too cold to be outside days, when I decided to use my great-grandmother’s sewing machine for the first time.   I’d promised my granddaughter I’d make a blanket for her beloved stuffy, Dog-Dog, so with material in hand, I opened the antique sewing cabinet.    When my great-grandfather purchased this for his wife Alice, she’d only had an old treadle machine. This gift came after her years of operating a boarding house and sewing fancy dresses for the wealthy. Not an easy livelihood in the early 1900’s—all while being a single mother.   I ran my hands over the metal wheel and imagined her delight at how automated it was. Rather than using her feet to propel the machine, she could use her knee against a convenient lever beneath the cabinet—using electricity!   I picked up her scissors—sharpened to perfection. Then I ran my fingers over dozens of wooden spools of old thread—varied colors from all those long, gorgeous dresses. Th...