"That" Gift

Everybody has one. It's that horrible gift that someone...usually a relative or a close friend...gives you for your wedding that you hate but you don't dare get rid of because they would be hurt.

This was ours:

You can't tell? It's a punchbowl. It's about 2-1/2' high. The woman's hat lifts off and inside is a bowl. Of course we never could have used it as a punch bowl because (1) it was much too small, and (2) it had a big crack in it.

It was made by a friend of ours who was an artist and a sculptor and for that reason we couldn't get rid of the thing because he might come to our house and wonder where it was.

So for 46 years it has sat on a shelf in our living room and I shake my head whenever I look at it.

The fruit, which was glued to the top of the head, broke off years ago--no accident or anything, the glue just got old, and so the pieces have been precariously balanced on top of the hat.

The artist and his wife divorced years after we were married, when he came out to the world and took up with a boyfriend. And then he died many years ago. But still his punch bowl sits in our living room and I keep shaking my head whenever I look at it, at what an ugly thing it is and how its only function, really, is so I can say to people "look at this gawdawful thing that we got for a wedding present."

Well, we are now re-doing the living room and everything had to be removed so we can paint and put in the new floor. The punch bowl has sat for years in the perfect sized niche in a brass and glass etagere that belonged to Gilbert, and it has sat on leftover ceramic tiles that came from a bathroom decorating project Gilbert had done shortly before he died.

But today...today...I threw caution (and sentimentality) to the wind and I threw away the ceramic tiles and while I was at it, I added the punch bowl to the pile of things that I will take to the SPCA thrift shop. Who knows? Maybe someone will fall in love with it and see the special things that the artist saw, that I never could. Maybe someone will glue the fruit back on the lady's head and actually use it--and be happy to have it. Or maybe the SPCA will say "What an ugly thing--throw it away!"

As for me, I'm looking forward to getting the living room back in shape again...and not having to deal with the ugly punchbowl!