birds of a heather

In 1955, my grandmother (I call her "Nana") received a gift from her husband, Bobby. The two glass birds were imported from Italy, and the pricetag, she tells me, was quite high, even at the time. I'd always admired these mid-century birds, with their opaque, smokey finish and dense structure. They are really quite heavy. The birds mean a lot to Nana, as they are the only things she has left from Bobby, who died tragically in 1960.

Nana always promised that she'd leave the birds to me when she passed, a date I know to be far into the future, as Nana is still quite a sparkplug. But she recently surprised me when she showed up at my house carrying a very heavy bag. She instructed me to open it, and I was shocked to see the two birds inside, wrapped carefully in several coats of tissue paper. It was an early inheritance.

The birds now reside majestically on my living room credenza.