Monday, April 1, 2013

Retail Therapy: Leontine Linens

When I got married in the summer of 2011, my gifts to my bridesmaids were hand-embroidered handkerchiefs from Leontine Linens in New Orleans. I bought a pair for myself too, and stuck one in the bodice of my dress and the other in my white clutch. Holly Golightly had Tiffany's, her place where nothing bad could ever happen. As much as I love that blue box, my cure for the mean reds is the Leontine Linens website. Were I to win the Powerball or sell a news app to Yahoo for a large fortune, I would immediately ring up Leontine and place my order for monogrammed towels, tablecloths, and pillow shams. But for now, I am content with my equivalent of Holly's engraved Cracker Jack ring.

The sales staff at Leontine were as attentive as the gentleman who showed Holly and Paul the sterling silver rotary phone dialer. When the handkerchiefs arrived in their box, they were accompanied by a card listing the names of the women who made on my order. 

In the summer of 2012, I carried both handkerchiefs with me to my father's funeral. During the service, I took one of them out of the handbag he bought for me when I got my first "real" job, and traced the monogram with my finger as if it were a rosary. This morning, I am pressing the handkerchiefs into service again to attend the funeral a woman who was a high school classmate of my sister and the daughter of a beloved co-worker. She will be buried at the same cemetery we laid my dad to rest. I do not want to get ready this morning. Once I put on my black dress, the same one I wore last summer, I know I will have to acknowledge reality. In the meantime, I am contemplating my handkerchiefs and hoping that they see more tears of happiness than tears of sadness in my lifetime.




8 comments:

  1. Oh, this is a lovely post and they are beautiful! Eventually, I think these will be the "sacred" handkerchiefs you had with you on those days. I think funerals are so difficult and going to the first one after your dad will be especially hard.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Allow me to express sympathy for the two sad events you have had to attend. I can understand how a beautiful and sentimental object can help to restore a sense of balance and equanimity on such occasions.
    --Road to Parnassus

    ReplyDelete
  3. My deepest sympathy for your loss. These monogrammed handkerchiefs for sure have many memories for you. It has brought you joy and tears. The monogrammed handkerchiefs are lovely and very traditional gifts to your bridesmaids.

    ReplyDelete

  4. Oh they are so beautiful, I love what WMM said, they will be come sacred, a good friend of ours has just been given 7 months to live, life is so hard to comprehend at times.

    Off topic, but my cellulite on my back legs disgusted even me two days ago.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you all for your lovely comments.

    Tabitha - HA! Only two days ago? I so have you beat (in the contest no one wants to win).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Such an insightful post. I have a funeral suit that is getting too much wear lately... I have a coat that I wear with it and I am always surprised at the amount of mass cards I find in the pocket and that I feel obligated to leave in there- my own little, personal memorial to all I had known.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These things do seen to go in cycles, don't they? Some years, I feel like I'm going to a wedding or baby shower every other week. Other years...not so much.

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...