Life is but a dream

I just wanted to give pause and pay tribute with thoughts of a blog friend today. I just read Kris' blog post this morning, letting readers know of Mary Ferguson's passing away. She wrote the blog, mydogsmygardenandmary. You may recognize Mary from her profile picture below, and her lovely comments she may have left on your blog in the past.

I have a very sweet story I want to relay to my readers about Mary and my recent purge. I had a set of dishes which I had created a tablescape with back in January.

Mary wrote this comment on that post:

My aunts (3) had this pattern and when my Aunt Nell died mother got her dishes. I was living in So CA when my mother died and I had to go back to Ohio to make the funeral arrangements. MY mother was living with another lady and was in the process of moving to an apartment. Well of course when I got there the lady said she didn't know where my mother was moving to, which I didn't believe, but what could I do. So I had my mother shipped to Roanoke, VA and the funeral home came and picked her up at the C & O station. We took her home to Springwood, VA where she was buried.

Sorry to give you so much background, but I did find 2 platters and one plate of the Azalea china. I have always wanted to finish the the set, but life got into the way.

I really love this pattern, it is stunning. So I really enjoyed your tablescape of these beautiful dishes. It is certainly a wonderful table for Valentines Day.

Everytime I look at them in the hutch I have wonderful memories of times past.

I then wrote to Mary and asked her if she would like to have these dishes as part of my purge. She declined, but then wrote me back the next day, saying this:

Rita, after not sleeping all night thinking about those beautiful dishes that I have wanted all of my life since I was 21. 

That was enough for me to box them up and get them sent to Mary!

Her reply, knowing they were soon coming:

I am so excited to think that I have finally found these dishes.  You can rest assured that they will be loved very much.  I can hardly wait to tell my friend Phyllis, Around the House (blog) as we were just talking about them the other night and she was looking them up on Google as we talked,  she is going to faint.

I have treasured those 3 plates that I have since 1956 and they have traveled from Clifton Forge, VA to Jefferson, Ohio, Peoria, IL, Chicago, Il, Fresno CA, San Diego, CA, Anaheim, CA and the last 35 years here at my home in Fullerton.  I can't begin to tell you how much they will be loved and to say thank you ever so much.

After boxing them all up, and letting Mary know the cost to ship, I wanted to be sure she was willing to bear the cost of shipping. Mary's reply came swiftly:

Yes, I still want the dishes and I am so excited.  Once again thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I never dreamed in a million years that I would ever get a set of these dishes. 

On February 24, I received this email from Mary:

Dear Rita:

The dishes arrived about 4 p.. and my postman stacked them on the porch.  I got them inside but didn't have time to unpack or check anything out.

This morning I kinda slept in for me - got up made my coffee, fed the dogs had a little breakfast and I started unpacking.  You get first prize for packing - nothing was broken and everything was perfect.  I had a wonderful time unpacking all those beautiful dishes.  Oh they brought back such wonderful memories of our Sunday dinners.  I guess when I was about 9 years old I fell in love with beautiful dishes and it has continued off and on through the years.  When I quit working and retired then I started collecting again.  Not old dishes but pretty ones to do tablescapes.

These beautiful dishes are so loved and the story will continue long after I die.  I am leaving them to my granddaughter, Kelly.  I am going to write a short story about these stunning dishes for Kelly and the history of them.  I will probably do a post about them.

I am putting the check [for shipping] in the mail after I finish this email.  Off to a luncheon for a friend who's back in town for a little while.

Enjoy your weekend and thank you from the bottom of my heart - they have a good home.

Love,

Mary

Another email, reiterating her excitement, that same day:

Rita, I can't begin to thank you for this beautiful gift.  I shall treasure it for the rest of my life and plan on leaving it to my sweet beautiful granddaughter.

I can't believe that your sisters dil didn't want the dishes.  I love when there is history to them.

So sorry about your friend passing.  It's so hard to give up people that we love.

I am exhausted after the Chinese New Years party and attending a luncheon that was here from the Philippines.  I have the dishes all set out on my dining room table ready to be placed into my hutch.  Some of the pieces are stunning and I haven't seen anything like that before.  My friend Roberta picked me up to go to lunch and I showed them to her.  She was stunned and thought that they were beautiful.

So again my friend, thank you so very much.  I;m off to bed.

Have a terrific Sunday.

Love

Mary 

On March 1, we were all getting spring fever. Mary wrote this email:

My friend  came over and helped me clean out my hutch and we put the beautiful dishes in there.

Thank you again -  I love them.

Have a great warm weekend.  I worked in the yard all morning planting some foxgloves (one of my favorites).

Mary

March 19, a note from Mary:

I wanted to do a post about the beautiful dishes and I didn't want to mention your name if you did not want me to.  I can word it differently.  Just let me know what you would like me to do.

Mary

I wrote Mary back, saying sure, she could post whatever she wanted to. Mary had some health issues and was awaiting a procedure that I know she mentioned being concerned over. I don't know if she passed away before, during or after that procedure. 

Mary, I sure hope a glorious table is set for you as you envisioned it. I'm happy for you. You will be missed.

In other thoughts, my dad would have been 100 years old today! He was a good man, and I hope he's celebrating his heavenly birthday with all his family and friends who have passed from this earthly life. Life is but a dream.

Thank you all for your readership and friendship. Blogging has brought many friends into my life.

Rita C. at Panoply