A few years back
my mother showed me
the Ironing Board
from the house where she grew up in Cape Breton.
“Made by Dad”, May 1, 1939.
That was likely the first mark, but not the last.
It is a diary.
In case you think Winston is my Grandfather,
No.
Winston was the horse
And horses were important on a farm.
The Ironing Board diary
recorded the weather,
of course.
It was snowy and cold too, on January 2, 1956.
It was the place where one sibling
could draw the portrait of the other.
Artist, Cathy “Ree” Campbell, my mother
and her brother, Hugh T., my uncle.
You could also practice a future signature
in cursive handwriting,
Grade IV,
The Ironing Board Dairy
named the big celebrations.
Kathleen Campbell (cousin),
Graduate Nurse, May 1961.
And was a place of remembering:
Shoe Size 5B
Boston,
where my grandmother’s sisters lived.
The Ironing Board Diary
is a celebration of the ordinary in the midst of the everyday.
I wonder what lasting mark you will make today?