Flowers Of Silk

I look at my rambling old home, our two wonderful children, and realize that March will signify our twelfth marriage anniversary! When we were just betrothed, we were rather young and foolish. Today, we are all grown up and mature. Not even knowing looking into the future or knowing what it would bring for us, we had come this far successfully! And we have no idea about how time went by so fast!

Our family has always been big on celebrating wedding anniversaries. As children, we would get so excited about our parents anniversary. We would spend weeks working on the perfect card, buying ingredients and baking a wondrous cake, and gathering up our coins and pennies to buy the most fantastic wedding anniversary present ever!

There was a time during our childhood days when our mother loved things made of rattan and wicker. So naturally we went hunting for something like that for her gift. And in a small shop tucked away somewhere in the town, we did find what we consider one of the nicest gifts ever presented to her! It was a small wicker basket with coasters. Each coaster had a water color painting on it–the painting was Asian in style and colored with glass. All the five coasters had wicker frames. There was no question about it–this would be our gift to our parents. My sisters and I fell in love with the basket. After paying $7.50 for the basket and its contents at the customer service desk, we were left with $3, which was enough to get gift wrapping paper and even a bow.

Unfortunately, the coaster set was “harmed” many years later. Our mother happened to take a swipe at a coffee table with her arm during an argument with our father. This coffee table had the coaster set that we had purchased with such reverence and regard for our parents. I can never remember that day without feeling a tinge of sadness and pain.

Yes, there were plenty of battles on their life’s journey, but our parents stayed with each other. And we were able to celebrate each wedding anniversary with some kind of celebration or the other. Yes, our gifts as adults were costlier than the ones we used to buy when we were children. Now they were cards with best wishes and some expensive item which was bought with all our money pooled together. Despite everything, it is the wicker basket with the coaster set that has remained in everyone’s memory as the best and most caring gift of all. Due to the battle of yesteryears, the coaster set was broken in some places and scratched in others. But it occupies a pride of place on top of a shelf, put there by our parents to remind them of our love for them. It is also a reminder that their marriage survived the storms over the years and the fact that they have spent so much time together.

Both our children have picked up our love for celebrating wedding anniversaries! Just like us, they prepare special cards for us and bake a special cake on that day. Then of course, there are the gifts chosen with such care and love!