Granny Smith's Dressing Table
This is a story about remembering and cherishing the memories we have of loved ones and family. It’s about the continuing gift of spirit that connects us all, those who have gone before and those we interact with right now in the present moment. I give thanks to God for all the moments - past, present and future - that make up the essence of my life.
I remember the dressing table from my early childhood. It sat in Granny’s sitting room in the far corner of the room, facing her little sofa so it was always in her view. I remember a statue of Mary on the left side of the mirror and some pictures slipped under the edge of the mirror framing. After Granny’s death, a dear aunt saved that little dressing table for me. I didn’t know when I would be able to get it, but she said she had room and she stored it for me for years.
One trip to New Mexico, we saw the Smith side of the family. My husband, Phil and I, with some help and friendly advice from the crowd gathered round us to say good-bye, got that little dressing table into the trunk of our rental car. From there we went back to Arizona to see Phil’s Mom and gather up belongings for the flight home. We used every box and hunk of tape we could put our hands on to wrap that dressing table up for its air freight trip!
I was thrilled to have it once more. For a number of years after I got Granny’s dressing table, it made many moves with us.
Over the years Granny had it, it went from rich, beautiful walnut to many, many coats of white enamel paint, holding scars no doubt but also occluding the beautiful grain of wood. I think that was a “thing” to give furnishings a fresh coat of paint each spring! Phil retired from the U.S. Navy in the summer of 1979, and we arrived in Virginia. I began my crusade to get Phil to restore Granny’s dressing table to its original wood finish. He would promise but then life would get in the way, and it wouldn’t happen. One Christmas, he drew me a picture of that table all refinished and promised he would work on it for my post-Christmas gift. That picture stayed on the refrigerator until Spring and Phil said it would be a May birthday gift. You get the idea! Life was so full and so busy with many things claiming our attention. When Phil became ill with cancer, finishing the dressing table was the least of our concerns.
Several years after Phil’s death, I was making plans to move out of our large home and carefully assessing what items would go, what items would not, and the disposition of those things that would not accompany me. Remembering the dresser was bittersweet. I could not imagine not having it with me all of those years!
A friend from church was a vocational-tech teacher; he said if I was not in a big hurry, he would let his students work on it. There were a lot of things they could learn from the design of the dressing table, including how to safely remove ancient layers of white enamel without harming the wood beneath the coating. I knew Phil would have approved and been grateful for the kind gesture from our friend.
All of that came to pass and I moved to Kentucky to go to the Lexington Theological Seminary; that little dressing table came with me and became my prayer space. It was such a comforting spot because I could remember back to when my beloved Granny sat on the little vanity still that accompanied it. It was my place of prayer and journaling for many years after that.
Fast forward to 2016. when I once more downsized from a medium sized apartment to a very small apartment. Granny’s dressing table found its way to my cousin’s home in Colleyville, Texas; their grandsons used it for a while as a study space. Ultimately it took a trip back to New Mexico (by car!) with another cousin and her family. it is treasured once again by family who live within fifteen miles from its original home! My cousin wrote that she had kept the statue of Mary for a long while and only recently placed it at the graveside of Granny Smith. The last time she checked, it was still intact and close to Granny once again. Thank you, O God, for the Gift of Remembrance and Connection.
Granny Smith’s Dressing Table was written by Rev. Sherry Ward and originally published in one of the Retreat House books House of Remembrance. You can purchase a copy here and also learn more about Sherry.