The little melamine bowl

It was just a cheap little melamine bowl. In college, in order to have enough credit hours to be a full time student yet enough time to focus on my internships, I took a flower arranging course. One of the assignments was to arrange flowers in a shallow bowl. I didn’t have one, so I bought a cheap little oval melamine bowl. I don’t remember where I bought it, or what I paid for it, but on a college student’s budget I know it wasn’t much. It worked well for the class and that was what mattered at the time. I used it for other things through the years, though it was seldom the really right size or shape for anything other than a bunch of grapes. Still I hung on to it. After the boys were gone and the bread basket seemed too large for just Mike and I, I started using it for bread on the table. Perfectly sized for a few rolls or pieces of garlic bread and much easier to clean as I could just “pop” it in the dishwasher, it worked perfectly. Occasionally used for something else, it made its way onto the table every evening. One day, pulling it out of the dishwasher, it slipped out of my hands. Hitting the floor, it cracked. A silver dollar size chunk splitting off from the rest of the bowl. Somehow it seemed almost sacrilegious to put it in the garbage can. 46 years, that little bowl had been there for me, being used in a yeoman fashion for whatever was needed. But a melamine bowl can’t be glued back together. Mike seldom notices the dishes on the table, but a few days later, helping to put dinner on the table, he asked where the bowl was, said he couldn’t find it. He too felt the loss of that little bowl. While we will always have memories of sharing great meals while that little bowl held the bread or grapes, we mourn the loss of the little melamine bowl. For 46 years, it served us, helped to feed us, was there for us. For 46 years.