Fast forward to now.
I’ve kept in touch with this friend through the years but especially since my mother passed in 2011. This friend is now in her mid 90s. An active woman, she spent her entire career in banking and had been a volunteer at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for many years until her recent “retirement.” She regularly meets friends for lunch, a cultural tour, or the latest movies. She keeps up with all the New York and world news. Her life has been a recipe for living fully.
She recently told me she was going through her belongings and had a lot of lace passed down from her mother who first arrived in America from Belgium along with her sister and sister-in-law in 1913. They never intended to stay. But in 1914 World War I broke out and her mother in Belgium died. So all three young women decided to remain in New York City and began working as domestics and cooks. My friend says they never regretted their decision.
Her mother returned to Belgium in 1958 aboard the Hubbard American ship and spent eight months visiting her family in their village near Brussels. It was her one and only trip back to her home country.
When she returned to America from her visit, she brought back a carton of lace. Her two brothers and three sisters had collections of lace and material for making these delicate pieces, usually done in the wintertime and on rainy days. The carton of lace my friend inherited must be well over 100 years old. And to think most lace is now made by machine in China.
Have you seen Judge Judy on TV with her lace collar? My friend says her family made many lace collars which women wore in days past, wearing the same dress but changing the collar each day.
My friend, my mother’s longtime dearest friend, did go through that carton of lace recently. I am the fortunate recipient of these very lovely heirloom pieces received in the mail this past week.
These pieces are very delicate and of course the photos don’t do them justice.
It’s interesting that these were made in Belgium. The little I know about lace is that much came from England where there were many lace factories. Most were made with silk since cotton was more expensive due to high tariffs.
These Belgian pieces feel more like cotton was used but I could be wrong about that. In any event, what you can’t see from the photo are the very tiny, intricate hand stitches and what must’ve been painstaking work in their design. Then I imagine the lacemakers working in their homes using the little lighting they must’ve had. Amazing.
They will be used here and there in our home. They are too beautiful to be relegated to a drawer. This is the fifth piece gifted to me and I plan to have it framed.
Thank you, Leonia, my mother’s dear friend and now mine. I’ll always have a part of you and your heritage in these precious pieces of lace.
Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts with you. And if you wish to become a “follower,” I’d be thrilled!
