real silk
My Nana is 105 years old. There is no way to sum up someone who is 105 years old, even if you have only been in their life for 30. Nana was already really old when I was growing up, but still took care of me often. She wasn’t one to complain about being old–it probably wasn’t until last year she even thought of herself as old and because of that attitude she takes no medications, isn’t wheelchair bound, has no arthritis, and just last month moved into assisted living. But that is only the medical side of things. She also writes a poem everyday, likes to stay up late, plays a mean hand of gin (she always beat me, but I was 9), believes you can heal yourself by the force of your will power and six vegetable on your dinner plate every night, gave her grandkids iceberg lettuce sprinkled with sugar for dessert, never learned how to drive (from the front seat), climbed trees when she was 80, calls a cell phone a “little phone,” and many other strange and wonderful things. In the 1920’s she worked for the Real Silk hosiery company selling stockings (and other unmentionables I’m sure). She worked her way up in the company until she was the secretary to the bossman, then, I think because of an ultimatum from my grandfather, came back to the midwest and got married. This hosiery mending kit was a little treasure I found in her sewing tin my mom gave me. You keep it in your purse and those little match-like things magically stop the run in your delicate silk stockings until you can get back home and mend them. I think it is absolutely fantastic. I’m so excited to get to use this pretty tin and pass it on when I turn 100.
