A beautiful true story of love............enjoy

A friend sent me this story last week, it's in her own words, and I wanted to share it with you.

In 1954, when my Grandmother was about 50, my Grandfather was returning home from an extended trip - Siam, India, Europe and the British Isles. He traveled a lot. Sometimes she would go with him, and sometimes not. They lived in New York City after escaping the bombings in England during the war. He was a world champion badminton player (also cricket - though after moving to US, he did not play that anymore). He traveled around the world promoting badminton and playing matches and exhibitions. It was Christmas Eve (his birthday). My Grandmother had learned to drive in his absence and was planning to pick him up from the airport and surprise him with her new found talent. The plane was going to New York - his final leg. It crashed on take off and all but one person was killed. Wish it would have been my Grandfather, but it was not. If only wishing could make it so, Z.

Many years later, my Grandmother told me that it really took a whole year before she really knew he was gone. Of course she knew on one level, but since he traveled so much, she was used to him being gone. She would find herself thinking that he would walk through the door, or when he gets home, we will do this or that....and then catch herself. It was also made more difficult because whenever he traveled, he would buy little things in different countries and ship them back home - not only to her, but to my mom, dad and my sister and me. Of course in those days, things took weeks and even months. There were always these little notes inside. I was very young (6) so I did not get the real impact as my parents and Grandmother did. I still remember the last gift - he sent my sister and I each an "elephant" stool. It was a small replica of what was used to ride on a real elephant and it was from Siam. They were made of leather (one was red and one was green) and wood. Just the perfect size for little girls to sit on.

When my grandmother was shipped his belongings (suitcase recovered from the plane), she found inside a small blue and white plate from Denmark. She had started to collect them, so he got one for her and was bringing it home with him. Amazingly, it was not broken. It was in perfect shape. I always remember it displayed, though I did not know the story behind it until I was in my 20's. I guess it was hard for her to talk about and I still remember being so surprised when she told me the story about it. One day many years after she told me the story, it fell down and shattered. Grams was about 85 years old at the time. She was in tears when she called me to tell me about what had happened. I told her to put everything together in a bag and I would come over and fix it. She told me that she thought it could not be fixed. I got there with my super glue. We worked on it together - she would hold pieces so I could glue them. We put it back together as best we could, though there were tiny pieces that were just missing because they had shattered so much. At that point, my Grandmother's vision was not very good at all (macular degeneration). When I held it up - she was just beaming and with tears in her eyes told me it looked perfect. She could not really see the little missing pieces. The plate was a picture of a ship on the ocean and the sky. The little pieces missing were in the sky - I told her they looked like stars shining through when I held it up to the light. This is not the exact plate, but it looks like this:

My Grandmother continued to keep the plate in a prominent place in her home. When she passed away in February of 2000, I took the plate home with me. I also keep it in a place that I see everyday, even though it is damaged, to me it is just perfect.

I think this story is, too..........thanks, Mary. xxxx
UPDATE: Mary tells me their Thanksgiving will be more special for her having written to me and then sharing this treasured family story again with her own children....Please remember your family members who are gone and keep them in your memories like the precious gifts they were. And still are. Z xxx