Blue Glass

She was excited to see her grandmother again. She had driven 3 hours and taken a 45 minute ferry anticipating being with the family she loved. It was financially hard this year. She just graduated from college and hadn't started working yet. She had scrapped up her last change to pay for the gas and ferry. It was important to her to bring her son across the ocean and to be around family.

After her grandmother hugged her hello, she brought her to the living room to show her the new blue glass pieces, again.

The blue glass was everywhere around the room. Some hung in the windows, shapes of flowers and animals stuck with rubber suction holders so that the sun could reflect through the shapes. They were stacked on the shevles..... it was much like being in a gift shop. There were so many pieces of blue glass.

Gram knew exactly each piece, who had given it to her or where she had bought it. She was listening patiently, again, as her grandmother went through each story about each piece.

she wished she was a piece of blue glass.


Years passed. She returned to the island again, with her husband now and more children. She was happy to see her grandmother again, but had foresight enough to tell her husband that he would go through a tour of her grandmother's blue glass. Patiently they listened as she described each piece of blue glass.....each person that had given it to her...or where she had bought it.

She worried that her children would touch the blue glass. Her children looking up in awe at the beautiful blues reflecting through the windows....magically making little ducks look like shimmery crystal creatures.. She winced as one of her little ones hands' reached out to touch the blue magic.

touching the blue glass might mean everyone would hear about how her kids weren't well behaved...it might mean she wouldn't be invited back. She loved her grandmother, but in that moment she hated the blue glass.

she wished her and her babies were blue glass.

More years passed. She returned to the island again. One of her babies a man now, seeking secrets from the island as he passed through adulthood. She sought to find her grandmother out....longing to see the blue eyes and the love on her face. The years had taken grandma's ability to speak well and care for herself. She was no longer in her home with the blue glass shimmering around the living room. She was in the hospital, needing 24 hour care from the stroke that took so much of her strength away.

When she entered gram's hospital room, she was struck by the blue glass. Hanging in the windows and a few standing on her nightstand by her bed. " OK", she thought, this would give Gram comfort. She resigned herself to the fact that the hated blue glass was still around.

She was struck with emotional surprise that even though Grandma wasn't able to speak; she gave the tour of the blue glass. Using a board to write on and gesturing with her hands; grandma showed her and her 5 year old daughter, the precious blue glass.

sadness overcame her. she no longer hated the blue glass, she felt pity.


Later that day she took her daughter to the Oak Bluff beaches to play in the sand. They jumped over stones, picking up the most beautiful ones to bring home to treasure. They sang, they danced...they splashed water at each other from the cold ocean. She felt home in the loving presence of her daughter on the seashore....as they gathered shells together reliving moments that generations before had beheld; mother and daughter gathering the gifts from the sea...

when her daughter looked down exclaiming in joy....at having found a beautiful piece of sea glass. The edges were softened from the salt and sand... her daughter held the sea glass up to the sun for it to reflect through....

and it was then that she knew.

the sea glass was blue.

she remembered being with gram and her great grandmother. she remembered childhood days of walking the beach looking for sea glass. Blue sea glass was the ultimate treasure. The ultimate reward. The ultimate gift from the sea....

she knew.

She was the blue glass.....as was her mother.....her cousins...her aunts....and uncles...her grandmother....and now her daughter.

blue sea glass.

blue memories of stolen days on the beaches......

small tokens to remember each person that gave her the gifts of blue glass...

and she wept a few tears for all the years of misunderstanding. of wishing she was blue glass...and not knowing.

She clutched the sea glass in her hand, knowing that it would hang on a string in her window so that the sun could reflect the blue shimmers...so that she and her babies would know;

the love of Gram.