Grandmother recycles treasures for grandchildren
Minot – A piece of lace from threadbare pillowcases. A favorite fishing shirt, worn-out and ready for the ragbag.
For Gloria Finch, these recycled things are among many that have become treasured reminders of special people in her life. Now she is passing them on to her twin grandchildren, who are about to have their first birthday some 1,500 miles away.
Finch, herself a twin, received a doll 70 years ago from a favorite aunt. Her mother had made her a set of pillowcases with delicate pink lace. Over time, the pillowcases were no longer usable, and the doll had lost its shine. But Finch just couldn’t let go. She had the doll restored and a new dress made for it with the lace that she’d saved.
Finch also saved her husband’s favorite fishing shirt with a pattern of red whales that she had made for him when they were younger. Every time she threw it out, her husband Ken searched and begged for it.
“Finally I just gave up trying to get rid of it,” said Finch. “Ken just had to have his shirt.”
So many memories
Then, when Finch’s husband died four years ago, that was the one shirt that she couldn’t part with. A friend of hers took it and made a teddy bear out of the salvageable fabric.
“You know, after my husband died, there just wasn’t much for me,” she said. “We had been married 50 years. But these twins have put new life in me.”
Finch beamed as she showed pictures of her family and all of the things she had saved and collected. Her own house used to be the one-room Pottle Hill School where her mother and her mother’s nine siblings went to school.
Finch’s grandchildren, Corwin and Kendra, will turn 1 on March 10. They will receive in the mail the doll and teddy bear as special presents from Grandma. They’ll also find two special videotapes in their mailbox in Waterloo, Iowa.
On Valentine’s Day, Finch turned her kitchen into a fantasy birthday party, complete with streamers and balloons. Attending the party were all of Finch’s special teddy bears and dolls. Finch’s friends came over to eat real cake and ice cream, and together they filmed the event for posterity – and for the twins.
Finch said her son and daughter-in-law asked her to host and tape the party so that the twins could have a special memory when they’re older. The maternal grandparents in Alaska were doing the same.
Even though many parents think that the first birthday is the most special, Finch said she and her family waited eight years for this one. Her son, Paul, and his wife, Diane, had suffered through several miscarriages and had begun to think that they wouldn’t be able to have children, said Finch.
E-mail or snail mail
But modern science has given Finch a chance to pass on her many memories to another generation. The twins came to Minot for a brief visit last fall, but phone calls are all that keep them close on a regular basis.
“They’re trying to talk me into getting a computer so we can e-mail each other,” said Finch. “But I’m just too old. I prefer to have a handwritten letter.”
Finch said she has thought only in passing of leaving Maine. She just couldn’t leave the Pottle Hill School that she and her husband had remodeled into their home.
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