Reflection of Life



The Reflection of Life

My Grossmutter's Dresser
Update below.

It's only a dresser, one that has a pretty mirror above it.  But it's that mirror that I think about.

It sees everything.  From the time it was bought, to the time it was brought into my current house, it was at the very center of all activity.  It's seen it all!

First, my Grossmutter purchased it.  She had a good eye for pretty furniture.  French/German and a name to match, she arranged her hair, powdered her face, and chose her jewelry in front of this mirror.

Her bedroom was the room in her house where most activity took place.  Her favorite chair was there, and it was there that I spent the most time with her. 

That mirror is the never changing, yet always changing object I can think of.

I remember it always being there. 

As I was growing up, I remember I couldn't even stand tall enough to see myself in it.  Standing on tiptoe and jutting my chin upward, I could almost catch a glimpse.  But slowly, as I stood there at each visit and was allowed to open the 'special' middle drawer, I was able to eventually see myself...and the rhinestone clipon earrings that were such a treasure to try on.

There were two ladder-tiered trays to which she kept her clipon earrings.  They supplied me with hours of never to be forgotten beauty and fun. And they gave me a love for beautiful things.

The mirror witnessed it all.  A silent yet living thing- it captured my smiles, the loving face of my Grossmutter, the beauty of her soft wrinkles, her lovely gray curls, and the kisses she gave me.

And as I grew taller, one day she gave me the dresser...and that mirror.

Into my toy-filled bedroom it lived and watched.  Watched my feeble attempts to be a girl that was liked at school, a daughter that never quite fit in.  It witnessed the tears and the hurts.  It saw the times of laughter and joy.

And it finally saw a young woman who graduated from high school and went away to college.

During the college years, the mirror was still for much of the time, with only a few visits from me to keep it alive.

But there was another change.  I married and had a family, and once again it was a witness to much activity.

Laughter of my own children and smiles and giggles...it watched on as my own sons grew up and as I grew older.  Gray hair and crow's feet, arranging my hair and powdering my face.  Choosing my jewelry for the day.

I started to collect some clipon earrings to keep in that same drawer to fondly remember my Grossmutter...to keep her close and her memory alive.

The boys are grown men now, and very soon the dresser and mirror will be moving again, to be witness to another generation of life.

What will it see?  Will the eyes of my future grandchildren peer into the glass while they stretch to see their sweet faces reflected there?

Someday will they understand all the history this mirror has seen?  Will they realize the generations that were reflected in the glass??  The love... The life?

The Reflection of Life

Update: January 2019
I myself am a Grandmother now.
But while we waited for the birth of the baby, a hurricane was dumping huge amounts of rain on the Houston area, flooding the house of my son and his wife.
Grossmutter's dresser was there, slowly being covered up with almost 6 feet of water.

The kids are fine, but the house was a mess.
Contents? Spoiled and ruined by water.
The dresser was kept by my son. He pulled the drawers that he could, and allowed it to dry out.
I cry thinking about what all they lost, and are still rebuilding. And not just them, but all their neighbors, and the whole area. 
The pieces that are left of the dresser will be used to make a table top, maybe some other small things, and the mirror will see more faces peering into it as a separate piece.

I just hope that the history follows those pieces. Making something new out of something ruined or damaged... kind of how God works on us.
Seemingly ruined and destroyed pieces of humanity, made into something new as only He can do.