Many of the readers of this blog know my mother passed away two weeks ago. I have begun the unenviable task of going through her stuff. What to keep, what to toss, what’s important? I came upon a roomful of purses. O.K., maybe it wasn’t an entire roomful, but it was a lot of purses. In reading Maguire’s “The Power of Personal Storytelling” we learn objects can be a valuable starting point for delving into the memory banks. I thought I’d take the opportunity to examine mother’s purses individually and try and put each into
a time frame or connect it to a particular event. One purse I found seemed so
out of character with my mother who was a stylish woman with traditional
taste. The picture above shows a plain purse with a plastic or Bakelite
handle. Where did this come from? I began to imagine a secret life she may
have led away from her wifely duties and church social functions. Maybe it was
an experiment on her part to break out of the conventional mold she’d fallen
into? Where is the story in this?
Where is the Story? by Mark Compton
7 responses to “Where is the Story? by Mark Compton”
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Objects can be powerful symbols in our lives, or the lives of those around us. The mere discovery of this brings questions in your mind. You have already begun to ask some. The questions may lead you to a story, real OR imagined. I have heard stories where the teller syarts with, “This is how I imagine it would have been.” Let’s hear your “could be” story!
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My best friend tells me a woman can never have too many purses. I foolishly mentioned that she has more purses than she does shoes. She just smiled and said that all she can put in her shoes are her feet, but her whole life goes into her purse. The story may not be the purse, but what is in it.
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Purses are a relection of a person at a certain period of their life and for women we can never have too many purses or shoes. There probably is a good story behind the purse and where she went with it.
I think its more exciting than my mother saving plastic bags and twisters- four drawers full. -
Oh Mark, I love this! There is little more telling than going thru personal effects after a death.
And maybe, just maybe, we ALL have a secret life! -
The objects people leave behind are precious to us calling up memories whenever we see or touch them. I have a dress that Mama wore when she was 10 years old. My son wears his grandfather’s ring. My great-aunt told the story of two vases my distant ancestor carried with him when he fled France in the 1500s.
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Mark,
Sounds like you have the makings of a great story here! And with your storytelling ability, I will be eager to hear it! -
Mark, I’m sorry about your loosing your mom, but I know that her stories will live on through you…purses or not.
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