I¿lost a personal and sentimental treasure this summer during the so-called earthquake swarms epicentered near where I live in Brawley.
It was a small, deep green and blue-footed carnival glass candy dish with a little lid. I kept it on a shelf with some other knick-knacks inside an old china cabinet doing double duty as a dresser in the spare bedroom. The keepsake candy dish had survived a least a dozen or more moves — not to mention several larger earthquakes through the years, but was taken out by one of the shallow +5-point shakers on Aug. 26.
A little piece of my heart broke with the glass that day. The dish had been a Christmas present from my maternal grandmother. I had kept it with me for more than 40 years.
My grandmother, Alice C. Lacy Reed, was mother to a brood of 10 children who in turn, went forth and multiplied (and multiplied some more), producing a small army of progeny. Despite living on a tiny pension, she always managed to come up with Christmas gifts for her grandkids. It might be a simple pair of socks or gloves, but it was normally something useful or practical she found at a local dime store. She even crocheted — if her arthritis wasn’t acting up. The candy dish was a break from her norm. Its only purpose was to be decorative and pretty. And it was a beauty.
Not until I became an adult did I truly appreciate how hard she must have had to pinch her pennies in order to afford something for all of us each year. I used to tease her because she would never throw out leftovers. She would reheat and reheat until every little scrap was begrudgingly eaten. I realize now that is one of the ways in which she had to be frugal with her money. To that end, what I received at Christmastime was not only a gift from her huge and generous heart but was something which she had truly sacrificed for.
I suppose the little candy dish became a symbol of her beautiful and unselfish spirit. When I saw it broken I felt as if I had let her down somehow and that my connection to her had shattered along with the glass. I was grieving for my grandmother all over again.
I began searching eBay to see if I could find another one like it and I have seen several up for bid over these past several months — all slightly imperfect, bearing chips, scruffs and various signs of age like yours truly.
However, what I lost had been as perfect as the day my grandma picked it out for me, as perfect as the Christmas Day I received it — all those long years ago.
So, I have decided it is irreplaceable. Like the rest of my most precious memories.
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