{"id":4480,"date":"2009-11-24T23:00:24","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T03:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/?p=4480"},"modified":"2009-12-10T13:17:03","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T17:17:03","slug":"coffee-can-pot-as-reminder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2009\/11\/24\/coffee-can-pot-as-reminder\/","title":{"rendered":"coffee-can pot as mystery + reminder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ellen<\/a>
Ellen Silverman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly a year ago at the Thanksgiving dinner of friends, Louise Randolph brought me a handmade pot she’d had for many years. The rough-hewn pot, improvised out of a coffee can, some wire and a piece of wood, had belonged to her late great aunt Eva Dahlgren. Eva grew up in a privileged home, and gave it all up when she volunteered to help refugees in France during World War II, an act of sacrifice that almost cost her her life. She refused to leave France when the Nazis began to close in, and held in an internment camp, in Baden Baden, for over fifteen months. This pot was one of a few possessions she brought from the camp upon her release. Even though Louise guards it as a treasured possession, it’s a bit of a mystery. Louise doesn’t know if Eva made the pot, or how she came by it, or even if she ever used it. What she does know, she told me in an email, is that<\/p>\n

“…that little pot tells more than one story.\u00a0There is a story of its creation and life in Baden Baden…and\/or\u00a0there is the story of Eva…that is recounted in a pamphlet: ‘Anne Morgan, Eva Dahlgran, Rose Dolan, and The Aid They Brought to French Refugees 1939-1949’. It\u00a0gives a clear account of the courageous work Eva did before and after internment, and a description of the harsh conditions during, when food, gas, clothing and other necessities were in desperately short supply.<\/p>\n

When you hear the breadth of Eva’s privilege pre-war, and the material possessions – some of very great value\u00a0 – belonging to her throughout her life, it is both a wonder, and an incredible key to her interior world, that this pot has now lived past her.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My friend Louise may never know the details of the pot, but she knows the feelings that that simple pot evokes:<\/p>\n

“When I look at it, it\u00a0is a reminder of war, loss, finding, using and sharing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly a year ago at the Thanksgiving dinner of friends, Louise Randolph brought me a handmade pot she’d had for many years. The rough-hewn pot, improvised out of a coffee can, some wire and a piece of wood, had belonged to her late great aunt Eva Dahlgren. Eva grew up in a privileged home, and…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,31,6549,8364],"tags":[615,616],"yoast_head":"\ncoffee-can pot as mystery + reminder - Improvised Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nearly a year ago at the Thanksgiving dinner of friends, Louise Randolph brought me a handmade pot she'd had for many years. 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