Many moons ago I met Grandma & Grandpa Phillips for the very first time. We went out to their home out Henderson Highway where they had lived since the 60’s.
In the dining/living room was what I thought was a gorgeous cross stitch of a bowl of poppies. No one else shares my enthusiasm. The Phillips’s have many grandchildren, etc so I figured the chances of Cade ever being gifted that art was slim to none.
Many years later my BIL and I were clearing the belongings from the care home where Grandma was living when she passed away. Low and behold, there it was. My BIL looked at me and said, that thing is not coming to my apartment! I couldn’t believe it was now mine.
It must have been important to Grandma too cause of all the things in their large home, this was one of the personal effects she chose to take with her.
For many years it has hung on my walls, dusty and dated. A large part of my hesitation was what would happen to the cross stitch when I opened it. Would it fall apart? Every framed item in the Phillips’s home was done at Eaton’s, where Grandpa worked for many years in the shoe department. I should have known it was framed well.
Yesterday I took it apart and it came apart easily with no damage. The glass was very dusty but easily cleaned. I decided though that the frame needed to be changed and so, out came the chalk paint, again.
This piece was something Grandma started when they moved into the house in the early 60’s. My MIL figures she finished it a couple years later.
CRUMBLING MEMORIES 