I See Why They Do It.

Many years ago, when I was a child, I had been staying with my god-mother for the Summer for my yearly two weeks. I can’t remember now what it was that I broke, I was gutted about it, but her wise words I have never forgotten, “At the end of the day, no life has been lost.” With those wise words, I have over the years, have been able to pass that on to others.

I see why the Japanese repair items, with gold, silver, or platinum. It helps to ease the pain! What a great idea and cultural, thing to do. Once something is broken, in general, it can not be put back together. It may have great value or of little value. If it has little value, then it can be an inconvenience, to replace, but if it is of great value, then an inheritance, would have been lost! Some items they are neither expensive or cheap, but have sentimental value, maybe the item once belonged to someone dear or special, and they are no longer with us.

My daughter Meghan went on holiday to beautiful Prague, she brought back a beautiful cup, it had Prague on it in large letters and the cup itself was colourful. I love cups, I choose a cup carefully, this was one of the nicest cups that she had, it was not too big or too small, really it was a Maxine cup, it was perfect. Meghan often used this cup, for her first cup of tea in the mornings and later for her hot chocolate in the evenings. Her drinks always looked nice in this special cup.

This morning, I was emptying the dishwasher, and Meghan has the top shelf, that she keeps her plates, dishes, glasses, and cups. I was putting her dishes onto her shelf, when suddenly I heard an almighty crash!

A cup had fallen from a great height, and smashed onto the hard tiled floor at my feet! I hoped it wasn’t the Prague cup, but if I was to have taken a bet, I would have guessed it was, to my horror when I looked at the broken pieces, it was!

It had gone everywhere, I saw a small bit, even in the next room, how it got that far, I will never know. I could see that some fragments had even gone into the dog cage, in the kitchen. I quickly put the dog outside, and picked up the fragment I saw in the Living Room, and shut the doors so that the 6 cats would not wonder into the kitchen.

I had to think fast, Meghan was on her way home from work, she had worked a night shift, and was in good spirits. I first picked up the large pieces and put then onto a large kitchen paper, on the kitchen table, then I swept the kitchen floor. I thought of the golden repair done by the Japanese, knowing there were far too many pieces, to put back together. I was gutted, gutted for myself, and gutted for Meghan. She had had a lovely holiday and had bought back this lovely item, that she could remember her holiday by. I tried to replay what I had done, and thought, why didn’t I look to the left of the shelf? Why didn’t I look to the right of the shelf? Why was I just concentrating on the middle section where the plates and dishes were? I wished I could have turned back Time, just for a moment. But it was done! And I could not undo it.

I looked on my phone to see where Meghan was, she was still 15 minutes from home, I thought of texting her a sad face, but that might worry her if she saw it, then I thought instead of texting her the word Prague, but I thought just that in a text would not make sense. I decided to wait until I saw her face to face.

When I feed the cats and give the dogs their treats, and do the dishwasher, I usually start to have time for myself, by having my orange and cod liver oil, but not this morning, this morning was different, I had something I needed to do first.  

She arrived, and as usual, when I am home, I go outside and stand at the front door, we always smile when we see each other.

We then went into the home together. Meghan put her bag in the hall and came into the kitchen, as she always washes her hands in the bathroom, but before she went in there, I said to her, “I have some news,” She could see the sadness in my face, and very quickly she said, “Is it bad news? Has someone died?” I pointed to the broken pieces of her cup on the kitchen paper on the table, I said, “I broke it when I was putting your dishes away on the shelf,” And added, I’m SO sorry.” She said, “It’s ok Mum, I am just relieved that no one has died!” And added, “As the last time you said you had news, Turmeric had died,” Then she said, “Next time, just come out with it, just say it,” I said, “OK, I will.”

Meghan put her hand to her chest, to calm herself, as I threw the broken cup into the bin.

After a minute or so, Meghan showed me the two fridge magnets on our freezer, so she still had lovely mementos of her time in Prague.