Mom had a pedestal glass fruit bowl which she bought prior to her mother’s death.  This fruit bowl was always visible both while living in Brooklyn and when we moved to New Jersey.  For some unknown reason, Mom was extremely attached to this fruit bowl.  I’m sure it held many fresh fruits when Mom used it in Brooklyn.  However, I don’t remember Mom ever putting fresh fruit in it when we moved to New Jersey.  Rather, the bowl, usually centered on the kitchen table, always contained artificial fruit.  One day Mom said to me, “You better not throw this fruit bowl away after I die.  If you do, I will come back to haunt you.”  Needless to say, I still have this fruit bowl.  It doesn’t hold the same significance for me that it did for my mother.  Rather, it has become a part of my mom’s history. 

The torch passed from my mother to me.  I keep the treasured fruit bowl safely stored in the attic.  It does not hold the visible reality it did when my mother was alive.  I have now passed the torch onto Rosalie.  Surely she knows she had better not throw the fruit bowl away or else my mother will come back to haunt her!