A Very Special Gift

Sandy in Canada has sent me one of "those" kinds of gifts. . .you know, the kind that when you open it you sort of take in a quick breath and say, "Oh!," as if you'd just walked around a corner and found a million roses all in bloom. It looks like a very humble, unassuming blue ceramic plaque with a childlike drawing of an upside down house. But not only was it chosen with love. . .it also had a very special link to my family history about which Sandy knew nothing.

What Sandy does not know is that my great aunt, Georgia Beatrice, whom we called simply, Aunt Bea, owned a cafe in Shreveport, Louisiana during the later years of the Great Depression. She was the next oldest girl after my Granny, Rubye Mae.

Anyway--she owned a cafe (pronounced by EVERYONE on that side of the family as "kuh-fay"), and it was near the railroad tracks in Shreveport. Her cafe was one of the ones "tagged" by hobos as being a place they could work for food. She would have them wash dishes, or chop wood, or carry groceries, or sweep up in exchange for a hot meal. It may have even been dished up with some free advice knowing her. But the name of her "kuh-fay" was found on rail cars along with the town in which it was located.

So. . .when I turned over my humble, little blue ceramic plaque with the simple upside down house on it and read the story and the meaning of the symbol painted on the front, well, it took my breath away.



Not only was it a lovely compliment, but it bound me even tighter to a history that is mine and that is shared with the Williamson side of the family. Aunt Bea never had any children, and she died at a ripe old age very much alone in the world except for her remaining sisters and my mother. But she helped those who needed it in a time when lots of people needed it. And this plaque has traveled all the way from Western Canada to remind me to do the same.