Heirloom 2: A hand made string bag.

One of the most precious items in my cabinet is a string bag made from thin plastic tubing, it is green and pink made for me by my grandfather.
This is the story. Just before my 7th birthday my grandparents came over to Victoria from Hobart Tasmania, on Thursday the 15th of September 1953 granddad was sitting on a chair in the lounge room with a kitchen chair in front of him making something with thin plastic tubing, as I went past to go up the passage,I asked him what he was making, his reply was something for someone very special. I accepted that answer, later the family had tea together and dad took grandma and granddad back to my uncles house where they were staying. My birthday on the Friday passed quietly, because I was actually going to have a party on the Saturday, I knew mum had made a lovely cake, I saw part of it come out of the oven ,it was a sponge cake and it had been baked in the big baking dish lined with brown paper. This was a big cake as the to girls who lived 2 doors from us in the top floor of the hotel on the corner were coming, they had said they would bring a bottle of lemonade! This was to be a real party! I don’t remember both their names but their surname was Bollan and one was Donna, they didn’t attend the local primary school, they went to the Catholic school a little further away. My grandparents were coming and I think my Aunty and Uncle were coming as well.
Saturday and time for the party arrived I had on my best party dress, the girls arrived, but no one else did, even my dad wasn’t there, and he would have finished work at 12 and been home by 12:45, there was no explanation but the party went ahead, the cake was fantastic, it had a big long pencil on the middle with ribbons coming from the top and on the end of each ribbon was wrapped up a small gift for everyone, mine was a nylon handkerchief in yellow and black, I still have it, I never used it, it was too special. I don’t remember what mum and dad gave me but I think it would have included a book or 2 and some play clothes that mum would have made. But to this day I still have the gift given to me from my grandparents, it was the green and pink string bag made for me by by grandfather, I used it for shopping for a few years but put it away to keep safe.

1. All this is firmly in my mind exactly as it happened. Because on the Sunday afternoon mum sat us down on the couch in the lounge room and told us that dad had gone to Tasmania with grandma as granddad had died on the Saturday, he had a heart attack while having a shower on Saturday morning. I knew that he would have been getting ready to come to my party. I have since wondered did granddad know on the Thursday that something was wrong if not why did he finish my gift, wrap it and leave it at our house, ready for the Saturday party. That simple string bag has pride of place in my cabinet, but it has no value to anyone but me.