Before
Elizabeth liked things to be done in the correct manner. It never occurred to Elizabeth that there could be another way – there was simply her way and that was that. During her lifetime Elizabeth would from time to time come into the company of someone who would boldly suggest an alternative way and then an unusual thing happened. Whenever this occurred Elizabeth became quite deaf for the length it took her to move away from earshot of the person talking. It became almost a ‘thing’ that people would do at local community events because it worked every time and because seeing the power of denial at work tends to make people wonder.
Her youngest son was about to get married and Elizabeth wanted the perfect gift for the wedding. She had already helped to pay for the engagement ring and handed over an exquisite and perfect engagement present. Now she had to beat ... well she had to beat herself which happened a lot these days as so few people worked within the same rigid social rules as herself. Nothing less than utter perfection would do; it was time to get to work.
Eventually she came up with a wonderful idea and she asked her secretary to arrange for the local Wedgewood representative to visit her the next time they were in the city. The day arrived and the representative was ushered into Elizabeth’s day room. Her own tea set was set up on a table ready for inspection because this was what she had chosen to have made for her youngest son and his soon to be bride - a tea set.
Her mother-in-law had purchased her a tea set which she treasured and she supposed the same would be true for her son and daughter in law. The sad truth was that Elizabeth’s son took his very own reusable cup to one of the three coffee carts that were near where he worked and which had the kind of beans that he adored. As for his fiancée – well she didn’t drink either coffee or tea, it had just never come up for her and she figured it was something she would grow into – she didn’t. She loved the smell of coffee but never fully understood how her work colleagues could go from almost asleep to fully wired within the space of half an hour and she also supposed that those addicted to this drug had stopped using that name for this product many years ago. She was in no illusion however – it was a drug and quite a powerful one at that.
Elizabeth spent a wonderful three hours with the Wedgewood representatives coming up with the perfect tray to hold her son’s tea set. On another day they were able to get the selection of options down to a top three. Elizabeth had a number of sleepless nights getting that list down to two and then finally the day arrived where she was able to look at the two options and knew exactly which one was the correct choice. Again, once she arrived at this decision it was then set in stone for all time and had someone enquired about tea sets, she would be armed and ready to lecture the person in question outlining her options, selections and then the final decision. She was able to do this in such a way that more than two housewives found themselves at 8.30am on a Monday standing outside the Wedgewood store waiting for it to open so that they could immediately purchase the correct tea set. This is one of the many reasons why Elizabeth was a prized customer of Wedgewood.
She had chosen what the tea set would look like – its outline and lines but she had yet to choose a color or a pattern. I think you will agree with me when I say that setting aside a full calendar year in order to make the purchase of a tea set was time well spent.
The final tea set really was a thing of beauty. For a start it was a very small tea set that is to say that that the actual tea pot, cups and saucers were all slightly smaller than a normal sized one. Elizabeth’s daughter in law to be was quite petite and she thought that the smaller size would suit her well. She had spent a robust three months coming up with the color – it was a very pale blue which actually looked iridescent in the right light. Finally, she chose the simplest of patterns so that it would not take over the smaller tea set and I have to be honest she chose very well. Each cup was hand painted in dark blue dots that when finished resembled forget me nots which happened to be one of Elizabeth’s favorite flowers. She had matched this on the saucer and plate with one change. On these items the painter added a pink rose and in fact each of the six saucers and plates were painted in a different shade so that literally no two were the same. It really was a spectacular tea set, if you like that kind of thing.
Elizabeth invited her son and daughter in law to be to join her for dinner. At this dinner they were presented the tea set at the end of the meal while they were in the tea room. At first neither of them understood why the tea set was so important. Eventually the butler took the son aside, explained the time and effort his mother had put into the purchase. As he had seen other such gifts come into being he finally understood what was occurring. He quickly explained that to his lovely lady and they were able to make the appropriate oohhhs and aaahhhs which made Elizabeth feel the whole thing had been a huge success and she went to sleep smiling.
The two were married a few weeks later and the wedding and the reception were both perfection because Elizabeth had taken over all the arrangements and even God understood nothing but fine weather would do. She had felt it necessary to take the reins after overhearing one of the bridesmaids saying that she hoped they would be allowed to choose their own bridesmaids dresses. Imagine!!
The tea set sat on a lovely dresser in the new home but I am sad to say that sitting was all it ever did in this particular home. Whenever Elizabeth visited them, they made a huge show of bringing out the tea set and offering Elizabeth a drink. She on the other hand was delighted to see that they were taking very good care of their precious tea set, it almost looked as though some of the cups had never been used.
Elizabeth eventually died leaving behind her a fourteen-page document outlaying exactly how she wanted to be buried, who should take the service and every little detail in between. It was her last event and she would have been pleased to know that it went off without a hitch. When one of the family misplaced their hanky at the church one magically appeared from the pocket of the upstairs maid. When the priest had a tickle in his throat at the grave yard the groomsman was there to pass along a lozenge to keep him from coughing.
The next week the bride dropped off a number of items to Mrs. Hope at the emporium including the tea set. She had truly loved the small set but as she still did not drink coffee or tea there was simply no point in keeping it. She had thought about handing it on to another family member but decided that the weight attached to this particular gift would finally be severed at Mrs. Hopes Second Chance Emporium. Someone could simply buy it because it was beautiful and it would no doubt bring them much joy.
During
The tea set arrived in a box along with some other exquisite and expensive items. Mrs. Hope could sense how much love and attention had gone into the making of this tea set and marveled at its simplicity and style. She placed the entire set on a low table near the entrance and awaited its new owner.
Two days later a friend of Mrs. Hope was passing by the store with her dog on his lead. The two ladies got to chatting outside the emporium and the friend let her dog off his lead so that he could wander about smelling messages left by the local dogs and memos of those passing by from far away. Eventually he got a little bored but remembered that Mrs. Hope usually had a bowl of ice-cold water near her front door. He lapped for a minute or so and then a noise in the shop made his ears prick up. He was in the store before either lady had a moment to respond and in two swishes of a tail the tea set found itself flying from the coffee table to various locations around the store. The noise was a bit like an alarm going off and all the belongings that were currently resting in the shop held their breath to see what happened next. The friend quickly put her dog back on his lead and apologized as she quickly took her charge home.
Mrs. Hope picked up the tea set which had managed to fly into almost all areas of the shop. She eventually found the last missing plate from the basket that currently held some really lovely angora wool. Not everything had been smashed beyond use but it did look like a very sorry mess. Mrs. Hope put it all into a box and promised that she would see what she could do to put some of the tea set back together again when she next had a moment.
The very next day a small girl named Poppy stumbled across the shoe box that now housed what was left of the tea set and begged her Mummy to be allowed to take it home. They stopped on their way home to pick up some very good glue. It just so happened that Poppy was very good at gluing one thing back together with bits of itself and she did a superb job. It was much better than what Mrs. Hope could have done, to be honest she would have gotten glue everywhere but mainly on her own fingers!
After
Gertrude was a lovely large doll with kind eyes and Crispin was a small but very cheeky wee bear with a tartan bow tie who had recently began to use a very posh tea set. The set was used on a regular basis as new dolls and toys were brought home – having a tea party was the quickest way for all the toys to get to know each other. They adored their tea set and in later life Poppy dreamed about it as the “perfect” tea set which would have made Elizabeth extremely happy.
However, we cannot contact Elizabeth right now - she is busy finding just the right book mark for God so it could take us a while to reach her.