KEEPERS

Like many other parts of the country we've had a lot of rain lately so I've been doing rainy-day things. The inventory of life is an ongoing activity; you open a box and root through it, tossing some items, saving others. Here are a few mementos I've kept over the years:

Cupid here is one of the oldest cards I have. It was given to me by my very first boyfriend when we both were seven years old. His name was Stuart and our birthdays were one day apart, (I was the older one). He signed his name very small and lightly on the back. I  also remember the beautiful gift he sent me: a box of marbles, or allies as we called them. I wonder where he is now. I hope he is happy.

My sister Lynne made me this birthday card for my 26th, so it's also an oldie. But a goodie. She said it was her version of a Gordon Fraser-style card, very popular back then. I love the fine, flowing lines and the colours. She's very talented, my sister.

Our grandmother, Mamoe, used to let us stay up late and prance around "harry starkers" on hot summer nights in her back yard. Such freedom for two little kids! I made this drawing as part of a book of memories for Mamoe's birthday. I can still hear her laughing when she got it. She laughed easily and a lot.

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This is a silly card I made for my husband, George, on his 65th, with references to the 'fridge list' and all the renovations he was involved with as well as his computer efforts. I don't recall the significance of the brushes. The cartoon doesn't look one bit like him and the cat looks more like a rat. But never mind.

My oldest son, Jon, painted this stylized cow for me. He had earlier painted a very large version of a similar cow on an old tarp which I loved but it was lost in a fire. His apartment building in Montreal burned down the night before Christmas Eve. He saved his cat but everything else was lost. It was a traumatic time for him, that's for damn sure.

I begin and end this post with a valentine. This one is from my youngest son, Andrew, when he was in Kindergarten. You can see the teacher's under-drawing which Andrew happily ignored as he sloshed on the red paint with one of those impossible large-bristle brushes they always give the kids at school.

And back they all go into the box, nothing here is ready for the bin yet. Some things are just too hard to let go.