The Lamp

When I was just out of High School in October of 1959 my grandmother died.  It was a devastating loss to the family.  She was the glue that held us all together.

My grandfather was the one most affected. The light went out of his life.  He was distraught.  My grandmother had an antique shop.  She had started out collecting them and over the years got so many of them that she opened a shop in order to have room in the house.  I grew up in their home.  My mother and later my mother and my sister and I lived with them.  Single mom's in the late 40's and 50's did not make a living wage and so her parents provided us rooms to live in.
Because I grew up in the shop I developed a great appreciation for antiques.  When my grandmother died the antiques had to go.  No one in the family could take over the shop and so things began to disappear.  One of the things that got sold was this lamp.  I can't remember the name of the woman who bought it but it was sold.

Sometime after it was sold my grandfather told his daughters that he was sorry he had sold it.  Because it was a tie to my grandmother and because it is a beautiful piece he regretted letting it go. He missed it.  They got in touch with the woman who had bought it and she sold it back. This was an incredibly kind thing to do. The only condition she put on it was that if he ever did decide to sell it she would get first chance to repurchase it.  It was agreed and The Lamp came home.

After my grandfather died my mother put all of the remaining antiques on tables and invited her sisters to come down and take their pick of the things that remained. (Not all of the antiques had been sold for many were family pieces.)  Through this process the lamp remained with us but the silver bowl sitting beside it went to my Aunt Ellen. (I was sorry to see that go for it was my favorite piece) -  So the lamp has been in my home since before 1959.  I love it and worry about it every time I have to change a light bulb. It lights both top and bottom.

The silver bowl came back when my mother was given the same opportunity to pick from my Aunt Ellen's things that she gave to her sisters.  She knew that I loved it and so she got it back for me.  It means more since it left and came back.  The black marble top table which they sit upon belongs to my sister.