While I was browsing the myriad of handkerchiefs etsy has to offer I stumbled over a few that had been stitched into baby bonnets. Wait a minute, I thought. I HAVE one of those.
So I dug through my old trunk and I found my baptismal gown from when I was a wee one. And with it I found this strange little baby bonnet that I knew I had seen before, covered with lace and ribbons:
And with it there was a card with a hand-written poem. The hand-writing is, I believe, my mom's. Or possibly my grandma's. Neither of them are with us anymore. The poem itself was written by god knows who, as it is the same poem that accompanied the hankie-bonnets on etsy:
I'm just a little hankie
As square as square can be
But with a stitch or two
They make a bonnet out of me.
I'll be worn from the hospital
Or on the Christening Day
Then I'll be carefully pressed
And neatly put away.
Then on the Wedding Day
So, I've always been told
Every well dressed bride
Must have that something old.
So what would be more fitting
Then to find little old me,
With a few stitches snipped
A wedding hankie I will be.
When my mom packed this little bonnet away for me almost 29 years ago I'm sure she thought that someday, when the time came, she'd be the one to dig it back out for me. She didn't know that she wouldn't be around when that day came. She just tucked it away, a good wish for the future.
And now I'm the one who's remembered it and found it and snipped away the complicated little stitches. I have my wedding hankie, I have my Something Old, and I have the quiet little wishes my mom pressed and set aside for me all those years ago.
5 comments:
my wife and I got a good cry out of that, thank you for sharing this sweet story.
wonderful. simply wonderful.
when my aunt had a baby girl a couple of years ago, my mom felt like she should see if she had some old things for the baby. (why she didn't feel this for my other four girl-cousins, I don't know) She found some, and then she opened one box of crocheted clothes for me. Made by her or my grandmother--the teeniest tiniest crocheting evAR. She took one look, touched the one on the top, closed the box and put it away.
Angie. That is exactly what that hankie was for!! I'm so glad you found it. I remember your baptism day and I remember sitting watching mom put those little stiches in for you. I completely forgot about it though. I'm sure that Mom was up there guiding you to find it and I'm glad you know that she was thinking of your wedding day even when you were only a few weeks old.
Oh my God Angie, that is possibly the best story ever! I'm balling. I'm so happy that you remembered you had it.
I just read this many months after you have posted it, and just a couple after your wedding. It is such a beautiful thing that your mother did for you then, and she was definitely there with you when you found it. Such a magical, maternal, and special thing for you.
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