PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

“When I die, I want to have scissors in my funeral” I have heard this phrase since I was 5 years old and have heard it almost weekly since then. The last time I heard it was this past monday. Her stash of scissors can be found in a cubby that used to be empty in her closet. Some are new, while others have been there for years. If you look closely, you may find that a few are a bit rusty now,  but she doesn’t mind and still likes to keep them all. Her obsession with scissors started developing once flowers became a source of income. She never intended to have this as a job, for her father would always tell her that she would never have to work a single day of her life. As a way to spend her time after getting married, she joined a gardening club with her friends, the type where married women would go to do “something different” and learn how to decorate their houses.It was in this club where she saw one of her friends with a pair of “lime green” scissors. Since then, she has been recurrently buying this pair for over 30 years.These are the ones that she wants to have in her casket. These were the ones that she would do most of her ornaments with. The ones she used when she started decorating her friends houses because they all loved the way  she would decorate her own. The ones she was holding when her friends told her she should start charging for her services, and the ones she cut all the social norms she grew up with since 1942. She decided to listen to her friend and would start charging small fees whenever she would decorate a house or do an ornament. Before she knew it, people were asking her to decorate birthday parties, first communions and even weddings. These scissors have busied her mind during her toughest years, they have cut the flowers that were used to decorate the ornaments of days that people would call “the happiest day of their lives”. They have created bonds with people that she worked with for  over thirty years. They have built the trust that remains today at her 75 years of age when people now and then still call her asking her to decorate events because “they wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.” Although many of her friends have told her she shouldn’t be accepting those jobs at her age, she insists that it’s not a job, this is what she enjoys doing the most. These scissors have helped maintain her sane. Although having scissors in your casket may sound a bit strange or cynical, for my grandmother it only seems fair to remain with this tool that has brought happiness to her life for so many years. (482 words)