A to Z April Challenge: I is for Iron Grate

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for iron fireplace grate.

It belonged to my great-grandmother Mary Sudie Eppard Rucker. I am trying to imagine the day in 1958 when my grandmother and her sister and brothers stood around picking over their freshly-deceased mother’s dishes, her jewelry, her furniture and whatever else. My grandmother inherited many fine items, but did she really want Sudie Rucker’s fireplace grate?

Fireplace grate belonging to Sudie Rucker

I guess so.

Whether my grandparents used it in their fireplace I do not remember, but my sister insists it was IN our fireplace when we lived in Cradock and that it followed us to “the new house” in 1971.

A little over 50 years after my grandmother volunteered to take the fireplace grate, my sister and I stood staring at it, debating who would get it. Throwing it away was not an option - it had age, it had family history even if we didn’t know what that history was. I’m pretty sure I grunted and said, “What am I going to do with it?” But my sister had a vision for its use.

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: D is for Doily

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for doily. I’m a sucker for a sweet doily. I have inherited lovely crocheted and tatted doilies from my grandmother and from my husband’s grandmothers. I have purchased doilies at antique shops and estate sales. Frankly I no longer know which is which.

Except for this one:

This very large doily was crocheted by my maternal grandmother’s mother, Mary Sudie Rucker. My grandmother sometimes used the doily on this very same table.

At one time doilies were a sign of upward social mobility. (Remember the scene in Anne of Avonlea when Diana Barry boasts about the number of doilies she received as wedding gifts!) The lady of the manor used doilies to protect her tables from being scratched by lamps, crocks, picture frames and other decorative objects. She used doilies on her tea tray to catch spills.

You won’t see Joanna Gaines or the Property Brothers staging their homes with doilies. As warm and fuzzy as "Home Town"’s Ben and Erin are, they haven’t featured any doilies either. Alas, doilies are considered old fashioned today, but I still like them and use them as they were always intended: to protect my furniture.

Two doilies
The large one covers the table
which is not in good shape.

I love this doily edged
with crocheted pansies.

Taupe colored doily -
its twin is on the other nightstand

I could not resist a
purple and yellow doily.

Those blue points!
Had to grab this one at an estate sale.

Even if my own daughters are not enamored of my doilies, I know of one person who appreciates them. My nephew’s fiancé, who loves all things vintage, will be using my doilies at their wedding reception this coming June. It is doubtful any of the guests will appreciate the significance of the doilies, but OUR family will know that some of these doilies are nearly 100 years old, still beautiful, delicate yet strong. The connection to family will not be missed.

Mary Sudie Rucker's handiwork

I am pretty sure Sudie Rucker’s doily would make Anne Shirley and Diana Barry swoon!

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: Don't Forget to Write

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt of a street scene with people coming and going reminded me of this souvenir of St. Petersburg, Florida.

My great-grandmother
Mary Susan "Sudie" Rucker 1875-1958

This is my great-grandmother Mary Susan “Sudie” Eppard Rucker. According to my grandmother, her mother loved Florida, and so she made a point to visit every year. She always brought back a souvenir, usually some shell-encrusted tchotchke – a bowl, a box, an ashtray. One of those souvenirs sat on my grandmother’s end table for as long as I can remember. Sadly – or perhaps not – it was not among the things that were saved and divided among her survivors.

On this particular trip dated around 1950 or 1951, Sudie’s big souvenir was this photo. As the story goes, her picture was taken for the newspaper. Why? Good question. Although the full story has been lost to time, one possibility is that she was newsworthy because she was wearing a coat. Who does that in Florida?

Given Sudie’s love of travel, it is not surprising that she signed my mother’s autograph book about ten or twelve years previous with this message:

Remember me in morning
Remember me at night
Remember me while away
And don't forget to write.
Grandmother Rucker

Let’s take a walk over to Sepia Saturday and grab some souvenirs.

Wendy

© 2016, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.