Cradle and community

I love collecting photos, letters, paintings, dresses,glassware from my parents. I like to display  and use them. I love the memories and stories each of these things hold. The cross stitch artwork from ammumma and thatha reminds me of the hours I have seen them together pouring over a piece of paper- thatha counting the stitches and ammumma stitching it. The wedding saree of ammumma that adorns the living room feels like we have a little piece of her in our house.

Ammumma's wedding saree from 1972

Made by Thatha and Ammumma

Passing furniture from one generation to another is a privilege. It means your ancestors had furniture in the first place, it means someone took a lot of care of the furniture, it means the family did well over the years, it means no hurricanes or calamities destroyed it, it means you have caring relatives who treasured the furniture for you to use. I thought I had lost the privilege of using hand me down furniture when I moved continents.

When I left my family to pursue my ambitions, I never thought of settling in this new country and definitely did not think of having babies…but then life happened and here we were living in this beautiful neighborhood and expecting you.  When we told our neighbors that we are going to have a new addition to the neighborhood, we were met with congratulations, happiness and warmth.

Life moved on, but the next week, our neighbors dropped by asking if we want to borrow their cradle for you to use. It was a simple suggestion, but one that brought out a lot of emotions in me. You see, when you are pregnant in the middle of winter and with no family for thousands of miles …this simple gesture can mean a lot.

In this year of polarizing politics and xenophobia it feels good to know that there are still some people in our neighborhood who treat neighbors with love and affection and look beyond the skin color or  accents or their background.

The cradle that you both used has a long history. It was custom built for our neighbor’s son in 1965. For the last  52 years , the cradle has travelled from family to family and was used by more than 23 infants. It is such a beautiful ,gorgeous high quality cradle. I love the craftsmanship and the thought behind this wonderful cradle that has taken good care of so many little ones.

You both are privileged to enjoy this beautiful cradle and I am forever in debt to our wonderful neighbours who made us feel like we are part of this community with this beautiful gift to you!