The Traveling Stained Glass Window

Old stuff has stories--we wonder about who used things before we bought them, where they were made, how old they are.

Sometimes we add to those stories when we go to extreme measures to track down an old item or bring one home.

Last summer, Doug and I spent 5 days on Nantucket visiting my 22-year-old daughter, who had a seasonal job on the island. One day, as we were exploring the beautiful historic town, we discovered a hospital thrift store on a side street--an entire old house filled from basement to attic with books, clothing, dishes, lamps, kitchen tools, and other treasures.

We made our best find in the basement--a stained glass window that we knew would look beautiful hanging in front of the frosted window in our bathroom.  At $47, it was a bargain--we had paid more than $100 each for the two we already had in our house. And this one was on Nantucket. We were pretty sure it had come out of a Nantucket building--who would bring a window from the mainland to an island to dispose of it at a thrift store?

But we had a problem--we didn't have our car, and we couldn't exactly bring a huge window on a plane as carry-on luggage. But my daughter told us to go ahead and buy it, as she could bring it home with her at the end of the summer. So we scavenged string from a drawer at our B&B and day-old newspapers from the lounge, carefully wrapped the window up, and left it with Christine.

But the best-laid plans don't always work out. She ended up flying home rather than getting a ride, and as she was finalizing her plans for leaving the island at the end of the season, we were desperately trying to figure out a way to get the window home.

When a friend of hers heard about the situation--and learned that it would cost $75 to ship the window--she offered to drop it off on her way home to Mississippi.

We ended up with our window and a new friend who spent the night at our little house on her long drive south from Massachusetts to Mississippi.

And our window has a new installment in its history.