A fountain pen that has traveled with me for over 25+ years, from apartment to apartment, city to city, and state to state. I’ve moved around a lot! I received the pen from my mother as a gift. I worked for a large denim company back in the early to late 90’s and had just gotten a promotion. My mom showed up at my work unannounced and didn’t get past the receptionist. They tried to call my desk but I was in a meeting so my mother left the pen (in its box unwrapped) and a handwritten note with the receptionist. I opened the note and it read, ‘Sharon, may you write many great things. Congratulations on your promotion. Your mom’. There were so many things that had to take place for this pen to reach me. She had to purchase the pen, get on a bus and take it across town, and then try to get it to me as she didn’t exactly know which building I worked in.
I didn’t use the pen - I recall trying it out and thinking ‘this is a special occasion pen’. So guess what? Those special occasions never really came up. I’m sure the ink dried up and the pen was relegated to a drawer somewhere. But even with all the moves and the years that had passed, I always knew exactly where the pen was.
One day as my daughter, Bianca, was talking to me about pens and how much she loves fountain pens, I remembered I had one! I told her the story and Bianca was intrigued and peppered me with questions. What type of pen? What brand of pen? Why don’t you use it? I was more intrigued by thinking I had a ‘vintage’ pen! She let me know that the pen was a Parker 88, made in England between 1987 and 1994, with a gold plated nib, and was inspired by French design. The pen has a history.
Bianca said she’d clean it and get ink for it and she did. When she handed it back to me, I looked at it anew and I held it for a beat thinking “now what?”. Yes, now it’s time to write with it and actually put pen to paper.
I used it to write my morning page, I was reading The Artists Way by Julia Cameron at the time, so it was a way to use it daily for my stream of consciousness writing. Using the pen at first, still gave me the feeling of it being too special to use daily and also, ‘oh, I don’t want to run out of ink’. The pen in my hands felt magical at first, I wasn’t used to writing with a fountain pen so I found myself trying to hold it carefully. It made me want to write elegantly. But each day that I used it, I started to feel a bit melancholy as it brought back the memories of the note. Every time I write with the pen, I feel my mom. It’s been a gift that will last me my lifetime.
As I look forward, I’m now on a journey with my daughter as we embark on our own business together. A pen, a gift from my mother and I can’t help but think of all the gifts people give or receive that are transitory vs something that can hold up over time, spark a memory or a feeling because it has lasting value and meaning.
Sharon