photo #8741252

I hung my dead mother-in-law's handkerchiefs in my kitchen window and my husband hasn't said a word about it for three days. She passed two years ago and left behind boxes of stuff nobody knew what to do with. Costume jewelry we'd never wear, sweaters that smelled like her perfume, and sixty-three vintage handkerchiefs folded in tissue paper like they were precious. They were precious to her, I guess. She collected them from estate sales, always said they were too pretty to use. They've been sitting in my garage ever since. I couldn't throw them away but I also couldn't just leave them in a box forever. Then I saw someone on the Tedooo app who'd made a window valance from old linens, just tied them onto a curtain rod in this messy, beautiful way. I spent Saturday afternoon tying each one on, all the different patterns and colors overlapping. Florals from the fifties, embroidered edges, one with tiny bluebirds. The light comes through them in the morning and makes patterns on my counter. My husband walked in, stopped, stared at it for a long time. I thought he might cry but he just said "she would've loved that" and made his coffee. He keeps touching them when he walks past, like he's checking to make sure they're real. I think I finally did something right with her things.~ Melissa Hardy