Grandma

I was thinking of Grandma today. She died back in Feb of 2001. I think she had quite a hard life, being a city girl who married a city boy who was promptly sent to work in the country. I remember her having lots of things. Lots. Stuff. Trinkets. Ornaments. Junk! When she died my mother and uncle and aunt had to clear out her little retirement village home (Papa had died in 1987), and my mother complained bitterly about all the stuff that had been squished into that tiny house: paper serviettes and sugar packets from McDonald's, tea towels, serving plates.... never-ending stuff.

But today I was thinking of Grandma and minimalism; something most people who knew her would say she didn't do! But I remember her telling me that when she was a young mother in the country she had precisely three dresses: two to be worn alternately through the week, and a "best" dress for Sunday. As the "best" Sunday dress became worn, it would be relegated to "ordinary" status and one of the "ordinary" dresses would become a dress for my mother, or rags, or something.

It's hard to imagine. But I really think I need way less clothing than I currently own.

(Photo of Grandma - Dorothy - aged 6, with her mother Vida. Christmas 1918.)