I was making a coffee this morning and I realized how nice the cup was. I know nothing about china, but the cup belongs to a set that came from a lady I met just once. That was about ten years ago, when my father-in-law was volunteering at a nursing home and invited me to come along. I learned the lady died about a year ago and left the set to my in-laws, who gave it to us. It looks like it has never been used.

That reminded me of two more stories, one real and another one sent by the kind of friend who never has time to write you something personal, but forwards you stories (which may well be real too).

The real one is just a flash that stayed in my memory. There she was, my mother, trying to put on brand new clothes on my brother and me. We were probably 4 and 5 years old. The clothes didn’t fit! She had been saving them for a special occasion and we had outgrown them. All I remember is her face. A mix of sadness, disappointment, regret, anger… I don’t know. I don’t have the words to adequately describe how she looked.

The other one concerned a man burying his young wife who died of a sudden heart attack. Someone commented on how beautiful the gown she was being buried in was. The widower said: ‘It was my gift to her, but she never wore it. She was waiting for a special occasion. I guess this is it.’

And remember the movie ‘Sideways‘? Paul Giamatti’s character was saving that special bottle of 1961 Château Cheval Blanc for a special occasion. Instead he ends up drinking it from the bottle (or was it from a disposable cup?), concealed in a brown bag, seated alone in a fast food restaurant.