By Barbara Falconer Newhall
I waited too long to get married. By the time Jon and I said our vows, the contents of my hope chest had become outdated, old-fashioned, fussy — unusable.
As a result, after thirty some years of marriage, I continue to be the owner of a dozen or so beautiful, hand-embroidered, virginal pillowcases. I’ve had them in my possession all these years. And I’ve never used them.
My grandmother in Scottville, Michigan, made them for me when I was a girl. She sent me a pair every Christmas for years, and each time she did, I wrote a nice thank-you note and stored the pretty things away.
They would be my trousseau, I decided. I’d save them up until I was married and my Real Life could begin. When that time came, I’d share my pretty pillow cases with my husband and our most special house guests. Bed sheets were always white in those days, and the pillowcases with their delicate embroidered edges would bring color to my marriage bed and to our guest room.
Unfortunately, by the time 1977 rolled around and Jon and I finally began our life together, white bed sheets had gone the way of big Sunday dinners right after church and nylon stockings with seams up the back. All the department stores at the time were showing bright, boldly colored sheets with big blocky prints.
Crisp white sheets? A thing of the past. Dainty, flowered pillowcases? Fussy and sentimental. My trousseau pillowcases with their daisy chains and sprigs of orange blossom? An embarrassment. The very idea of a trousseau - still more embarrassment. I hid the pillowcases away and bought a set of Marimekko sheets at Macy’s.
The years went by. Jon and I moved from a double bed, to a queen sized bed, to a king. Sheets were purchased, used till threadbare, then ripped up and stuffed in the rag bag. Children were born. They slept in cribs. They slept in bunk beds. They slept in sleeping bags. They went off to college and slept on extra-long sheets in extra-long dorm beds.
But every Christmas when it came time to dig through the linen closet for the Christmas stockings, I’d come across Grandma Falconer’s hand-made pillow cases and feel sad. Chain stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch, French knot — her handiwork was so careful, so loving, so Midwestern, so out of synch with my West Coast life style.
But styles changed. Eventually, I lost interest in the big, bold patterns of my newlywed years. I took to buying plain blue and green sheets with interchangeable blue and green pillowcases. It was simpler to make the beds up that way. The trouble was, at our house pillowcases were like socks - a pair goes into the wash and only one comes out, its mate gone missing.
Meanwhile, the faithful pillow cases continued to turn up every Christmas. Pretty, I’d think when I spotted them in their linen wrapping under the Christmas stockings. Old-fashioned, but pretty. And really, they are treasures. Heirlooms practically. And too good to use every day. I’ll just put them back on their shelf in the linen closet and save them for a really special occasion.
More years go by. Lots of them. Until, finally last week, getting ready for houseguests - Peter and his girlfriend from Minnesota - once again I was short a pillowcase or two. And there they were in the linen closet buried under the Christmas stockings as always: Grandma’s lovely old hand-embroidered pillowcases with their trilliums and marguerites and vines of ivy.
I found this Christmas card tucked among my grandmother's pillowcases. Her handwriting was as meticulous as her needlework. Photos C B.F. Newhall
I pulled them out, chose the prettiest two pairs in the lot and dropped them into the washing machine. Grandma’s pillowcases had been waiting forty years for my Real Life to begin. They’d want to freshen up a bit.
© 2010 Barbara Falconer Newhall
