Betty Barr Boilesen

Life is a Gift - Enjoy the Present (and the Strawberries)

 

Strawberries

By Doug Boilesen, August 26, 2019

 

Mom wasn't a collector -- but she did keep all of her Christmas cards and birthday cards and she enjoyed her collection of strawberry plates...she also loved strawberry shortcake.

Through the years it seemed natural to give her birthday cards with strawberries and related strawberry ephemera. Years later there are still a few who associate strawberries and Betty.

This year on Mom's birthday my sister invited three friends for lunch. It would have been Mom's 95th. Since Mom knew these friends Sister Bev (as I like to call her (1)) decided to get out some strawberry plates for serving the food on and to use strawberry napkins that mom had purchased . "Yes," said Bev, "I still have some of the napkins that were in her cupboard."

It was a fun way to remember Mom and it added a special element for a group of friends getting together for lunch, each of whom had probably had lunch with Mom at some time during those years on Lyncrest Drive.

Memory is an interesting thing. There are objects and sounds and places that have special trigger powers.

I'm glad my sister included Mom's strawberry napkins and strawberry plates for her lunch because I believe what Barbara Kingsolver said is true: It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.