Rule #2: Everything is Breakable

Shortly after we moved into the Mallory house--is this because when we move, we don't really have things in their best locations yet? another cautionary tale--we stowed many of our keepsake items in the closet at the end of the hall. This closet, next to our bedroom, was furnished with floor-to-ceiling shelves and quickly became the repository for adult belongings. Surely, we reasoned, with all the storage the kids had in their bedrooms and their hallway, we could have this little closet for our things.

But childhood has its reasons of which reason knows nothing, apparently. We found five-year-old Gordon in the hall one day, blissfully walking on two little framed pictures that were painted by David's great-grandmother, Mary Wilson. He had found them on the shelf and set them on the floor, and the rest, I suppose, was inevitable.

The pictures, unfortunately, were broken out of their frames, with quarter-sized chunks snapped out of the edges. We gazed at them mournfully, but what could we do? We stored the remains in a box, and administered justice with a firm hand. And installed a keyed lock on the closet door.

This impasse remained until 1997, when I happened across a newspaper article about a place in the Phoenix area that specialized in museum-quality restorations, and my eyes lit up when paintings were specified. I called them, the cost was acceptable, and I took the little pictures in, hoping to surprise for David for Christmas. When I went to pick them up, the restorer spoke of them as "nice little primitives," and then hastened to reassure me that the term "primitive" was descriptive of a style, not an insult. Gleefully I brought them home, wrapped them, and then realized that because of the move to California, it would be better if he saw them before Christmas. So we had a brief gift-opening in my parents house, and David's delight was all I had hoped for. Mission accomplished.

The little pictures now hang in our front entry, as pristine--and primitive--as ever they were. See if you can spot the repairs. I cannot.