Grace’s Dishes

 Out of the corners… Out of the glass cabinets… Out of the attics… Down from the upper cabinets… Out of the garage and… ON TO THE TABLE!

What are you waiting for? Why not today?

This is a story of dishes that will not be waiting in the garage for a great grand-daughter to grow up.  The day I met my friend to look at Grandma Bate’s estate, she took me back to her garage where she had a set aside a stack of Lenox china for her daughter Grace. She had other treasures she chose for herself, but never pictured herself using the Lenox. So she hoped that one day her daughter would like the dinnerware.

It was her idea.  There was no guarantee that Grace would have any interest at all in her great-grandmother’s china.  What if I took the china and used it? What if I set my table with it occasionally instead of it sitting and collecting dust in the garage?  Then when Grace gets her own place, or gets married, the dishes are delivered back to her.  If she loves them, she will take them and cherish them.  And if they are not something she wants, they did not sit in a garage in vain.

I’m looking at a photo that came inside a holiday card, and I am reminded that my lease will be up before I know it.