2 minute read
I Love My
A Vessel of Memories
Like many of the people I interview for this “I love my…” series, Honi Goldman’s first inclination was to focus either on the passion she feels for her work or on a fundamental value that guides her life. However, when pressed to select a specific item that she treasures, the decision was an easy one. “I love my great-grandmother’s vase. It reminds me of the strong women in my family, their experiences, and our history,” Honi says.
In the early 1900s, Great-Grandmother Minnie and her husband Saul lived in a downtown Louisville home where the vase was a focal point in the living room. Stories passed through the family tell of Minnie riding in a carriage, going to visit with relatives, and playing cards on Sunday afternoons. Upon Minnie’s death, the vase made its way to Honi’s grandmother Dorothy, who loved to tell Honi stories about her daughters: Honi’s aunt and her mother Miriam.
“When I see this beautiful piece, it reminds me of these strong women, and it connects us through time,” Honi says. The vase held a place of prominence in Honi’s home until Halloween night about four years ago. Her dogs Archie and Alice were confined to the kitchen so they wouldn’t bark and scare trick-or-treaters. Upon hearing the doorbell, Archie, who Honi calls her secret service dog, was desperate to get to the door and protect her. Using all 90 pounds of his weight, he broke out of the kitchen and bolted through the living room, where he toppled the vase. Honi gathered the pieces that night and put them in a box, determined to find a way to put the vase back together again. After much research, she learned of a Japanese art form called Kintsugi that could be used to reassemble her treasured vase. Last year she finally found a man in Delaware who did such work. “He asked that I send all the fragments, even those as small as a grain of rice,” Honi says.
When thinking about the vase and its long history, Honi considers the Passover tradition of breaking the matzah bread and pulling of one small piece. That piece would be hidden, and the kids would go to find it in hopes of a fun reward. “But they only got the reward if the piece could be matched again to the original,” Honi says. “And that’s the lesson in this for me: what was broken can be made whole again.” One day when Honi passes the vase along, the story of its Halloween misadventure and subsequent rebirth will become another part of the family lore.
