That Pretty Bowl

On By granonineIn Friday Fictioneers, Word Press Challenges

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

He gave her the bowl for Valentine’s Day one year early in their marriage. She treasured it because he wasn’t much of a gifter. Not that he didn’t care; just that he didn’t think of it. She understood, and valued any gift he offered all the more.

It came to be known as “That pretty bowl.” It had celebrated with the family over the years, holding fruit, or vegetable salads, or concoctions of Jello and whipped cream. Sometimes she filled it with the flowers of the season.

Now she was gone. Her daughter has the bowl.

 

 

Advertisement

63 thoughts on “That Pretty Bowl”

  1. Dear Linda,

    You’ve crammed years of story into a hundred words. Well done. I hope the daughter cherishes the bowl. I, for one, was pleased that my brother didn’t want the bowl. 😉 Good one. (Link successful)

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Cleverly told, Linda! The different contents of the bowl summon up the different occasions on which it was used – birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer days with flowers from sunny gardens. A whole lifetime of small and not-so-small joys.
    Really lovely.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Neat story. Its association with all those good times makes it an heirloom. Like our Mom’s things that we got when she sold her home, some items are so wrapped up in memories of her hospitality and love that we cherish them beyond their worth. When I go the grands can decide what they want.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. I love that the bowl has taken on an entity of its own, so to speak. We make of it what we wish, don’t we? A bowl can be a bowl… but a bowl given for love becomes something else altogether. Hopefully, the daughter cherishes it as much as Mom did…
    The Christmas before my father died, he gave each of us daughters, an item we liked from his stuff. I blubbered like never before when I opened up my box and found his tea set…

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Oh, his tea set! I have way too many of those, because I love teapots and people have gifted me with them down through the years. Each one is personal and precious. So I get why your would blubber 🙂

      Like

      Reply

      1. Indeed!! I also dreamt of opening a tea house so I was gifted with many a teapot… which I now have to get rid of as I downsize my house…and never did open my teahouse…

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes. My mom had a little glass bowl with a glass spoon that she used to put in the center of a jello that had been molded in a ring. There would be a delicious creamy sauce for the jello. I loved the bowl and spoon, and I still have it. It brings back so many happy memories.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  21. A lovely touching story. The fact that he wasn’t a “gifter” made it more real and the bowl very special. I really enjoyed the descriptions of what went in it too. I am always wanting to know what people have to eat!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I wonder–do people still make fancy Jell-o salads? I think it may be a bit old-fashioned, but we still have a couple of favorites that are requested especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

      Like

      Reply

  26. My dad wasn’t much of a gifter either. But he did cut my mother a bouqet of daffodils every spring when the first blossoms arrived. He always said it was better to give people flowers while they were still alive than to wait and place them on their graves.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Donna. I think one of the reasons they don’t want/need our stuff is that these days, couples seem to start out with far more than we, and especially our parents, had when they first married. My sre. umom longed for years for a complete set of china, finally got one for her 25th wedding anniversary. It was a different era, for sure.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s