“Now, after 17 years . . . “ — Sidney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon*
1) Finally today, after all this time, I dug out The Urn from everything in the cellar, washed it in my new deep kitchen sink, and installed it in the Cozy Nook. It’s an important element in my Howard Johnson’s at Versailles kitchen.
2) It’s really all a big joke funny only to myself. About 30 years ago Daddy served a term on the local hospital board of directors. The directors would get terribly pretentious gifts every Christmas. The first was this three-part German porcelain urn. It’s the kind of thing that neither Daddy nor Mother would ever have chosen themselves. Of course this made me laugh like a drain, and I begged to have it to put on top of the toilet in my apartment. (I was still in my 20s then . . . ) Had Mother been able to raise one eyebrow, she would have done so, but she acquiesed and mailed it to me. And for four years on Beacon Street it was proudly displayed on top of the john, and then for nine years afterward on the bathroom counter on Columbus Avenue.
Not at all overdone.
3) When I moved to to Maison Robaire in 2003, I knew in advance that there wouldn’t be a place for The Urn. So I stashed it in the cellar, and “Now, after 17 years . . . “ to quote Sidney Greenstreet, its time has come.
3a) Because so many of you would expect this gesture, I expect The Urn will be used for my ashes at the funeral.
*Yes, there is a movie quote for everything. Everything!