Family Ties

I've been absent from Blipfoto since October 20, during which I had a week with my sister M in Texas, rich in extended family time. M and I think we've finally reviewed all of the family "heirlooms" in various boxes, including this lovely handmade lace.

The envelope in which the lace was stored had a few sentences in the familiar font of our maternal grandmother's ancient Underwood manual typewriter, saying "Mama [her mother] knitted this lace for me -- she made yards of it, different widths, for a suit of linen lingerie for my trousseau! Then she featherstitched miles on the finished garment."

Memie, as our mother's mother was known to her 13 grandchildren, was married in 1913. Her "suit of linen lingerie" is long since gone, but this sizable remnant (more than seen here) of the delicate lace handknitted by her mother is now more than a century old (see extra photo).

On a larger scale than lace in an envelope, I also connected in person with my grand-niece and grandnephews (my sister's grandchildren), and a first cousin once removed on our father's side, an extraordinary experience. More on that later...

Blip 1983