From Whence We Came

"Don't save something for a special occasion. Every day of your life is a special occasion."

~President Thomas S. Monson

Last fall, my grandmother called me one Saturday afternoon and told me she had some china dishes, passed to her from another relative, that she wanted me to have. I immediately went to get the dishes and spent days admiring them as they sat on my dining room table. I loved the dated vinyl cases they were stored in, I loved the faded receipt found with some china bowls and I loved the elegant look of them. Most of all, I loved the feeling I felt as I unzipped each case and wondered about the meals served on these plates. I wondered who my Auntie Dale invited to her luncheons or dinner parties when she used this china. I wondered what they talked about, what they ate, and what they wore.

As I found a home for the prized set of china dishes, I made a mental note to have a luncheon with my grandma using these new dishes. Despite using the dishes with my own family a couple of times since the fall, I still kept meaning to host a luncheon. A few weeks ago, while realizing my spring calendar was quickly filling up, I knew I couldn't put off a luncheon anymore. Life wasn't going to slow down any, so I may as well fit it in where I could.

While trying to figure out the wording for the invitation, a phrase came to my mind. It encompassed all I wanted to honor at the luncheon.

"From Whence We Came."

I used my very best china, I used silver platters, bowls and trays. (Mike bless his heart, polished silver for days. Days! He is far more detail focused than I am. )

My mother and I carefully chose a menu, and decided to give a personal favor to each attendee,thanks to my Great-Grandmother Hill who years ago owned (costume) jewelry that was handed down to my mother. It has sat in a case in my mother's closet for years not worn or used. My mother and I made magnets out of brooches, pins and ear-rings that will now adorn fridges of Alta Hill's descendants.

Do you LOVE the gold "silverware"? I DO!!!

A few of us loved ones, joined together by blood and marriage, sat around the table talking, laughing, and crying as we shared memories of special times, and beloved items.

There was a special feeling in my dining room that Saturday afternoon, as a few of us gathered around a table remembering loved ones no longer with us. In fact, instead of trying to put the afternoon into any more words, I'll borrow them from my grandmother. In a card she wrote to me after the occasion, she stated,

"How delighted our loved ones would have been; to see, hear and feel of the influence they had on our lives."

Without a doubt, I believe my loved ones were delighted to see a few of their posterity honor them.