Tuesday, January 5, 2016

My Mammaw, the Carpenter

Recently my two younger brothers, one sister-in-law, my hub, several nieces, my son, and I have spent a few hours ( and muscle power) getting my mom's manufactured home ready to find a new resting place. 

We followed Mom's instructions that I found in a green spiral notebook behind her red recliner. "All gifts were to be returned to the giver" was the main rule of order. My gifts were usually easy to recognize, since most came from my almost 30 years of living in The Netherlands. 

But as we sorted, culled, and threw away, I was on the lookout for "memories." Luckily my memories were different from my two brothers, so we didn't have much discussion on what we took.  

One of the last items I brought home was the primitive table made by my maternal grandmother in 1928. And Mammaw was kind enough to leave her provenance tucked away in the drawer of the table.

Provenance on the back of an old envelope stashed in the drawer of this little table.

Fits perfectly in front of the window in my laundry nook.

Lighting wasn't the best for this shot, but you get the idea.

Mammaw had an eye for detail.


There is the drawer with the hidden provenance.

And the drawer pull was made from a wooden thread spool and bent nail/screw.

My grandmother wrote this 60 years after she made the table in 1928. And as I can figure, Mammaw was in her mid-nineties when she wrote this message about her proud little handiwork.









5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now THAT'S a treasure.

Joanne Noragon said...

It's important to leave a little story. My mother did for most of what she left behind. We appreciated it, as she knew we would.

Mrs. Micawber said...

What a precious gift from the past! And what a talented lady your Mammaw must have been. She did have a good eye. :)

Janneke said...

Your Mammaw was really a good joiner and together with the note a great memory.

Paulette said...

What a great blog post!