"Art"

Well, I certainly didn't think this was Art when I first beheld it some 26 years ago!

When Evan, our youngest son, was three years old, he went through a stage of not wanting to sleep in his own bed. So we would let him drift off in our room, and when we came upstairs for the night, we would carry his sleeping body back to his own space.

Not long after I had purchased some very expensive lace-trimmed damask sheets for our bed, I discovered my little blond cherub curled up, sound asleep in the middle of his new "masterpiece". Somehow, he had found a permanent marker, and had gone to town decorating the sheets and the wall behind the bed with his distinctive first initial. He was just starting to learn to write his name, and his E's looked like combs! As extra decoration, there were great blobs and smears of dark blue ink liberally distributed over the top sheet's lace.

The next morning, I gave him a very stern lecture about only writing and drawing on paper -- never on walls or furniture or sheets! Throughout his dressing down, he stood with his arms crossed, looking up at me with a cool, steady gaze. When I had finished my rant, he calmly said, "How'd you know it was me?"

I kept that sheet, deciding that one day I would look back at his antics with nostalgia instead of annoyance. This Friday evening, Mr. W and I will be hosting a dinner party to honour Evan and his fiancee on the eve of their wedding. Yesterday, I unearthed the ink stained relic, and cut out a representative sample which I put in a frame. I intend to bestow this upon my new daughter-in-law after telling the tale in the form of a toast. It can be her first piece of monogrammed linen!