dragonlady7

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His whole life, my dad was a handkerchiefs kinda guy. He sneezed a lot, he had allergies and asthma, he was just always blowing his nose, and he never used Kleenex, I never saw him do that one time. He just used handkerchiefs. Always, endless ones.

Did you know, the Army used to issue them? He had a number of them. Cotton, olive drab, not the softest, but sturdy and practical.

He had so many handkerchiefs. Bandanas, sure, but also the white ones with decorative edging. he had tie-dyed ones. He had many that small children had decorated with fabric markers as gifts, since he had grandkids. An entire drawer in his wardrobe was filled with just handkerchiefs, and they were a significant portion of his laundry.

After he died, right away Mom went through and found most of the ones the kids had decorated, and gave them back to those kids, since it would be meaningful to them. She kept a few for herself. And then she dumped the rest in a box and gave them to Farmsister, who also uses handkerchiefs fairly faithfully.

As I was at Farmsister’s house before the interment and was getting dressed I cursed that I’d brought several handkerchiefs and couldn’t find them, and was going to have to try to dig out a travel pack of tissues. “No, no, no,” she said, and ran into her bedroom and retrieved the box Mom had brought over.

“Souvenir handkerchiefs,” she said. “Take a couple. Actually– shall I bring the box?”

And so she brought a box of Dad’s handkerchiefs to his interment.

Anyway I had stuffed one into my backpack and i can’t stop sneezing this morning and just pulled it out to use it and you know, it doesn’t smell like him anymore, but. Now my nose is running a lot.

Good thing I have this. (Your picture was not posted)