Grandma's Angel

 As a young person, between 10-13 yrs of age, I have vivid memories of going with my grandma to help her at craft shows.

Grandma was a true artisan and could make doilies, table runners, quilts, angels, dolls… (you name it!). When she needed help setting up the stand, I would accompany her to different high schools and help out.

I recall setting up the booth in such a way that during “dead” times, I could hide under the table amongst the boxes and make fun forts.

I would help set out the Christmas angels and there were tiny baby ones, skinny ones, ones with poofy “robes”, ones with pointy wings, ones with rounded wings…. And this one always was my favorite. The wide, bell skirt was always perfect, and I loved the delicacy of the wings. I remember saying to Grandma one day at the West York HS craft show “Grandma, someday if you don’t sell this angel today, I want to buy her!”

Grandma laughed and said “Virginia, some day you can HAVE her. I have too much junk.”

That’s how Grandma always was. She never indicated that she thought what she did was talented, beautiful, or delicious (she was also an amazing cook).

Well, time went by and I graduated college, got married, and two years ago, I went to visit Grandma when I was in Pennsylvania. She told me she wanted me to follow her upstairs. There, in the room I used to stay in when I’d sleep over at her house, she had boxes of her crafts that were left from the craft sales. She had stopped doing them long before.

She told me that I was the last grandchild to be given the opportunity to look thru everything and pick out anything I wanted.

I picked out snowflakes, Christmas bells, doilies, and potholders. She reached over the bed and pulled out the last box and said “I don’t know if you even want one of these angels, but if you can use them…”

There was my beautiful angel I always said I’d buy.

I told Grandma about that, and she laughed, made the clicking noise she always made, and said “Well, looks like she’s yours.”

I miss Grandma. I love that her handiwork is all over my house so I easily am reminded of her generous nature and hard work.