December 7, 2019. Madison, Mississippi. My Dishes.

Using my good dishes for every day brings me great pleasure. Often, it is the little things in life that keep one smiling. Every time I use my good dishes I smile. When we first married, a friend gave us a set of dishes with a dogwood blossom in the middle. I enjoyed using those dishes because they reminded me of beautiful Vancouver. Those dishes came from Eaton's store. Also as a wedding gift from a family friend Phyllis, was a set of Royal Doulton earthen ware with a bamboo pattern. Although they were not fine china, we used those dishes for our best, which they were. One Christmas, after we had been married for about 15 years, Ken gave me a place setting of fine china for Christmas. He had decided that we could afford good china so he went to the china department and selected the pattern. He never said a word to me or asked what I would like. He knew I would say that we could not afford good china. We were still using the two sets from our wedding. Ken enjoyed lovely things with high quality so he decided it was time to get us beautiful china, which he did. I loved the idea and I even liked the pattern. Bit by bit, we acquired more. Piece by piece our china grew. I now have 30 dinner plates. At some point I acquired the dishes from Miss. Tomlinson, which I began to use for every day. The dogwood dishes got lost in the shuffle. And I packed away the bamboo pattern, until we built the Top House at the ranch which we used every day, which I loved. Now the Spode dishes from Miss. Tomlinson are being used at the lake house in Texas. The bamboo dishes are boxed up and are in Texas. Ken's beautiful dishes are used by me every day. It pleases me to use those dishes at every meal and again, be reminded of the impact of Ken on my life. And I am grateful.