Family Relic
Aug. 26th, 2007 02:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ashetlandponyI realize my writings of late have been on the rather morbid side. It won't always be like that, I assure you. It's true, though, that morbidity and mortality are subjects I've long been used to, because my father made his living manufacturing steel burial caskets.
I recently found this family relic on eBay:
Dad kept one of these in his pants pocket for years after he had them made in the early '60s. I distinctly remember he had scratched his initials "E.M.S." on his tape measure. I don't recall exactly when he lost it, but it was long before his death. (It was nowhere to be found among his personal belongings.) So I was glad to find this one as a keepsake.
Incidentally, it may surprise you that there is a religious connection between otters and caskets! You see, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne was the Catholic patron saint of both otters and the funeral industry. (He began the practice of Christian burial in pagan Britain.) I'll leave it to this page to explain the connection between otters and St. Cuthbert.
I recently found this family relic on eBay:
Dad kept one of these in his pants pocket for years after he had them made in the early '60s. I distinctly remember he had scratched his initials "E.M.S." on his tape measure. I don't recall exactly when he lost it, but it was long before his death. (It was nowhere to be found among his personal belongings.) So I was glad to find this one as a keepsake.
Incidentally, it may surprise you that there is a religious connection between otters and caskets! You see, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne was the Catholic patron saint of both otters and the funeral industry. (He began the practice of Christian burial in pagan Britain.) I'll leave it to this page to explain the connection between otters and St. Cuthbert.
