By Judy Wagner, Videographer – Family Video Timecapsules
We cannot keep everything passed down from our ancestors. We cherish some items because they remind us of our heritage or early memories, but they just accumulate in a land of plenty. So, we donate them, hoping they will continue to build memories for others. But it’s important to keep alive the most important part of the object – the memories it invokes – while releasing it to others to enjoy
Here’s what I did to memorialize my parents’ set of wedding china for future generations. I wrote the following story for my personal family history blog, www.familyhistoryfun.blogsppot.com. You can easily do the same for your give-away objects using a free service such as Google’s www.blogger.com.
THE TRAVELS OF WEDDING CHINA
Our parents Alice and Bill didn’t do much traveling together outside of the USA. They went to Europe only once, late in life. But their wedding china has made up for it.
They were married in the Spring of 1940. They eloped to Virginia, so they didn’t have a big wedding with registries for china and the like. Yet, somehow, they ended up with a complete set of a pattern by the Japanese “made-for-export” company “Renwick”. It looked sort of Bavarian, but with that Japanese Satsuma-like red color that made it lively and friendly.
We lived with it throughout our childhoods and beyond. In fact, it is the only “good china” that Alice and Bill ever had. Over the years, pieces died in terrible accidents and went to heaven, so it was harder and harder to set a good table with them. But the bulk of the set stayed nice and stationary in New Jersey.
When the parents passed away, we had to decide what to do with the remains of the set. Nobody wanted the whole thing. We kept it in various garages for a few years, and finally, as one of us was about to downsize and leave NJ, it landed in my basement. So, about 70 years after its arrival in NJ from Japan, the china set found its way to the state of Maryland.
But it was abused in Maryland: kept in the dark inside a cardboard box, except for one serving piece (shown here) that I still have as a memento.
About 3 years ago it was my turn to clean out my basement. As I was preparing to load the box into the car for its final trip to Goodwill, our friend Felicite took a look and admired it. Felicite IS a world traveler, having begun life in Burundi, received her higher education in Montreal, and landed in Washington, D.C. in 2008 with husband and kids. Because she liked it, I offered it. She took it; I felt good. She told me she uses it for entertaining and that it looks great on her table.
The treasured china set out on their table, all ready for an African feast.
The lucky transfer to the home of world travelers has given a new life to this now almost antique set for, early in 2018, Felicite’s husband was transferred to the Democratic Republic of Congo where he is responsible for a World Bank program on electrification. They took our china with them.
So, our Japanese Renwick china is now experiencing life in Africa, with African cuisine piled on to keep their kids Graciella and Noah well fed and happy. The family’s house is close to the Congo River, so our little Japanese china set is having an adventure!
And there is Noah, contemplating the Congo River from a spot near their home in Kinshasa, the capital city.
I sure hope the set (or what’s left of it) comes back to Maryland, not because I want to see it, but because I WANT TO SEE FELICITE! On the other hand, if Felicite and family return after donating the set to an African family, I’ll pray that our pre-WWII china has found a comfortable final home in a land of growing prosperity.