Here's a great story from a reader! You are certainly free to add more stories like this if you wish. We are having a Winter's Tea here in January, for some young women, to encourage them to be keepers of the home, and the theme will be story-telling. I'm certainly going to include this one.
Hi Lydia, I read my boys a story this morning and thought of you during the part I'm going to copy below. It brought a lump to my throat and I commented to them how sweet I thought this part was. It came from a republished book from 1847 called "Boys of Grit who Changed the World" and this particular story was about the life of Hans Christian Andersen and the part following was about his mother. I hope you appreciate it as much as I did.
Joanna in northern Ca. :) The Andersens were poor-so poor that they lived in one mean room where there was little besides the shoemaker's bench, the rough bedstead, and a few homemade chairs. The father was a disappointed man, his greatest ambition in life had been to secure an education but his father had thought this was a very foolish idea and as a result the shoemaker, although an intelligent man, could neither read nore write.
Many years afterward Hans described the home of his boyhood. He wrote: "Our little room was almost filled with the shoemaker's bench, the bed and my crib. The walls were covered with pictures and over the workbench was a cupboard containing books and songs; the little kitchen was full of shining plates and metal pans or by means of a ladder it was possible to go out on the roof where, in the gutters between it and the neighbor's house, there was a great chest filled with soil. This was my dear mother's garden, where she grew her vegetables....my mother always kept our room clean and neat and took great pride in having the bed linen and the curtains very white."
picture by Sandy Lynman Clought (http://www.sandyclough.com/Clough.htm) Click on for a larger, beautiful view!
1 comment:
"...my mother always kept our room clean and neat and took great pride in having the bed linen and the curtains very white."
No matter how humble our circumstances, our homes can still shine with our care. What a great reminder...how often do we feel we 'MUST HAVE' a new _______(you fill in the blank) for our homes to be 'just right'? I know I've been guilty of this type of thought. Our families and friends aren't looking for a page out of a magazine to live in....they're looking for a clean, comfortable, & loving place to relax and throw off the cares of the day....and that takes effort, not money.
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