My First White Wednesday

I have seen many beautiful posts on colour themes as I flit through blogland…Blue Mondays…Pink Saturdays, but have not yet taken part in one of these events. When I happened upon ‘Faded Charm’, and saw that Kathleen graciously hosts White Wednesday, I thought it was time to join in the fun!

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Having moved from Northern Ireland to Eastern Canada, and then later across the country to west coast Vancouver, we seemed always to be paring down our family possessions. I am grateful that one of the few things my mother refused to give up was my christening layette, complete with its bonnet, undergarment and exquisitely detailed vest.

It is a true thing of beauty, my christening ensemble...a little yellowed with age, but no less glorious than the day it was bought. I marvel that my parents were able to outfit me so splendidly in those hard days of postwar Britain. It would have taken many months of putting away every spare farthing for them to afford it, and we barely managed to get by at the best of times.

Ours was not always the happiest home throughout my childhood, but my heart takes comfort in knowing how proud Mum and Dad were of me from the start.

With my mother, Esther Anne.
Belfast, N. Ireland, 1947

It is a wonderful coincidence that the only extant baby pictures of me are ones taken on my christening day. My mother and grandmother, both named Esther Anne, posed with me in the tiny garden behind my Gran’s row house.

My intent has always been to have the gown cleaned and mounted in a shadow box…but procrastination dogs me relentlessly, and too many projects get put on hold!

I am working on changing that!

With my grandmother, Esther Anne.
Belfast, N. Ireland, 1947

Having brought this treasure out of hiding, I 'm determined to look into archival display options. I promise to post the finished product when it’s ready! Please check back and hold me accountable for this promise! I'll conquer procrastination, yet...
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Many thanks to Kathleen for hosting this wonderful chance to get together!

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To see more of White Wednesday, or to visit Kathleen's charming blog, 'Faded Charm', please click on the link below...
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http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/
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My Sister...My Friend

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When I was twenty, our mother announced she was expecting a baby. My brother Martin, three years older than me and living on his own, was as surprised as I was by this news. In her forty-second year, Mum seemed to us decidedly middle-aged. She smoked to excess, loved her nip of rye, and played bingo four nights a week to get out of the house. In the colourful sixties, while I sported mini skirts and disco boots, Mum wore prim wool suits with stockings to work, and still pined for the extended family we’d left behind in Ireland. It was almost impossible for us to picture her pregnant.
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Ours had rarely been a happy home. My parents fought loudly and often, alternately going weeks at a time when they would not speak to each other at all. Timid and amenable, I was groomed early as the go-between. “Tell you father he can get his own dinner tonight” was a common message I got to relay, being then expected to carry back his profane response, rephrased in words I was allowed to use. Alone in Canada without family or support system, the four of us stumbled in chaos through the years, each hurting in ways large and small, yet knowing no other way of life.
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The birth of my sweet and lovely sister changed the family dynamic forever. Joyous event that this was, it could not, of course, fix our life of discord. With time, the rift between our parents became irreparable. When Nikki was four, Dad moved out of town, Mum became seriously ill, and Nikki came home with my husband and I. She was to stay on with us until she was finished school and ready to tackle life on her own terms. With my first child only three weeks old, I became the instant mother of two.
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I loved my new sister from the moment I set eyes on her tiny face. Folding her into our little family when my parents could no longer raise her was the natural thing for us to do, and something we have never regretted for a minute. In the years that followed, there were both good times and bad, but I may leave that story for another day.
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Suffice it to say, we sisters have been many things to each other over four decades, and I am most pleased to say that we are friends. For my birthday this year, she bought me the little figurine pictured above. It is by artist Susan Lordi, and is titled ‘Happiness’. The descriptive blurb about it reads, ‘FREE to sing, laugh, dance…create!’ Nikki said that as soon as she saw it, she knew it was meant for me!
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I adore the little figurine with her arms spread wide open to the world, but even more, I’m touched that my sister ‘gets’ me, as I ‘get’ her. We are sisters and friends…lucky to be alive on this beautiful earth, and even luckier to be sharing it with each other.
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I love you, Nik…

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