19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, April 13, 1914: Blue Monday. Yes it was. I broke one of Ma’s relics, and things got bluer yet. Made me feel real miserable.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma-
Ouch. . . it’s no fun to break a family “relic.”
Was Ma really mad? . . . and then what happened then that made things even bluer?
Oh a sad day for Grandma.We are all left wondering what is going on for that girl.
An accident can so quickly turn a good day into a sad day.
😦 I can remember breaking one of my mother’s relics. It was not good. She was so sad.
I know the feeling. It’s so easy to accidently break knick-knacks and other fragile items.
Oh, no–poor Helena. I hate breaking anything, even something with little value, and to break something that someone else cherishes . . . ouch.
In many ways it’s almost worse to break something that someone cherishes than something I cherish.
Aw….poor Grandma.Hopefully her mother wasn’t too terribly upset…
It’s difficult to tell from the diary entry how upset her mother was. . . though the way Grandma wrote that “things got bluer yet” makes we think that her mother punished her in some way.
She sounds really down. Relic is an odd term to use – although maybe not back then.
The term seems odd to me, too. I wonder if Grandma didn’t personally care much for the item–and that it just seemed old to her (though of course her mother valued it).
I was 8 and I just had to show it to my girlfriend who was spending the night, knowing I had been told to keep my hands off. We were both sent to my room. Moms get over it but I know she was hurt and I’ll never forget. I can empathize with your Grandma.
It have similar memories of breaking a knick-knack. . .
Haven’t we all done this??? It’s good to know we were not the only ones!!!
Based on the comments, I think this must be a near universal experience. 🙂
Isn’t it amazing how some things never change!!
A lot changes over the years. . . but many emotions, experiences, and feeling transcend time.
Absolutely. A very interesting point to consider as it is one we tend to overlook far too often and I think your project is wonderful the way it highlights the matter.
Aww poor Helena!
I agree. . .
How did she break it? Was she cleaning? Messing around? Dancing in the kitchen? We will never know.
I like the dancing in the kitchen scenario. 🙂
I wonder what it was.
So do I.
Although it wasn’t a relic, I remember breaking a Chinese vase base of a lamp. My brother and I were mucking around and he was tickling me and my head flew back and hit the base which then smashed into some large pieces. My Mum went absolutely mental about it, although I apologised profusely and was in quite a bit of pain, I don’t think I was forgiven for quite some time!
It’s so easy for things like this to happen. . . I can remember breaking a few things my mother treasured when I was a child, and I can also remember my kids breaking a few items I treasured when they were small.
I’m wondering what relic means. I guess it means a treasure. Maybe she just started feeling more and more guilty, especially is “Ma” was crying or acting sad.
My guess is that relic means an old treasure. Of course even something that was only 15 or 20 years old, probably would have seemed old to a 19-year-old.
Probably one of those few special things her mother really loved and treasured.
Oh my! She seems so much alive that I’m ready to tell her I sympathize with her. And what a lovely example you chose of a “relic”
I know what you mean. Occasionally, it’s almost easy to forget that this was written a hundred years ago.
Recently, I brought over a cake to a holiday party placed on my mothers ancient plate. The lady of the house dropped it and broke it into pieces. I wished her good luck on the breaking of glass and have missed my mother’s plate ever since.
How graciously you accepted the accident, and I’m sure you feel sad.
It’s so sad when something like this happens, though I think that you handled it better than I might have.
I had exactly the same reactions as socialbridge and wishfulthinking posted above! The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Some things transcend time and seem like almost universal experiences.
Today we would say “antique” but a relic had to be something very special to her Mom. So, a blue Monday got bluer for Helena but if I were there I would tell her “this too shall pass.”
You’re right. . . happier days follow sad ones. . . though I’m sure that’s a difficult concept for a teen to grasp right after she’s broken one of her mother’s favorite “relics”.
Thanks for sharing your grandmother’s diary. It makes me wonder what my grandkids would think if they look thru mine.
I bet that they would find it interesting. I’m sure that I have lots of interesting ancestors, but the ones who pique my interest the most are the ones who left behind enough artifacts that I can get a sense of what they were like.
It sounds like her day started off blue and got worse when the item was broken. Relic does seem like an odd term to use.
Her day reminds me of the old saying about days when everything goes wrong: “Some days you just get up on the wrong side of bed.”
This post struck a chord with many. It seems we’ve all broken someone else’s treasure at some point
It’s interesting how this seems to be an almost universal experience.
Oh that is too bad! Poor grandma. I remember when my husband broke one of my mom’s treasures on accident. It was a bad moment. My poor mom was very sad.
And, your poor husband. It had to have been hard to deal with his mother-in-law’s sadness.
I’m a butter-fingers ninja. I continually trip, fall into and over things. On our first trip to San Jose, I fell over my own luggage, head first and threw my laptop under a bus that I was carrying, LOL. I was ok, except my pants weren’t. I bet it was even worse for your grandma because she broke someone else’s treasure. Poor thing.