The Pietà

Many years ago, my then husband and I were fortunate to do a lot of traveling. It was BC time - before children. We started to collect an item from each place we visited that when you looked at the item, you knew exactly where we had been. Like a little Queen’s Guard doll from England and a flamingo dancer figurine from Spain. For our visit to Rome, there was no doubt about it. I needed a statue of the pietà. Not just any pietà, but THE Pietà by Michelangelo. And that is exactly what I got. It took center place in the cabinet where we kept the collection.

Sadly, the marriage ended and I walked away from everything, including the collection of souvenirs of our travels. I really never missed any of them since the memories were made with someone now a part of my past. Except for the Pietà. That piece I missed. Not for the memories of the trip, but because I thought it was such an incredible piece of artwork. How could a human being take a piece of marble and create such a masterpiece? Yes, I missed that piece.

Fast forward about 30 years. My good friend, Sue, and I went antiquing every second Saturday of the month. It was just a day we picked to put on our calendars so we did not plan anything else for that date. We did antique malls, flea markets, auctions, estate sales or whatever event we found happening on the second Saturday of the month.

One particular outing we heard of an auction for a warehouse of stuff. A lady was going to open a tearoom and sell treasures and antiques there, but she never got around to doing it. Instead, she had an auction to sell these treasures she had gathered. Sue and I got there early to preview her items to see if there was anything that interested us. I collect pink depression glass and Sue collects restaurant-wear dishes so we were always on a mission to find additions to our collections.

As we were looking over a shelf of items I commented to Sue that there was a set of glasses there that were just like a set I had received for a wedding gift many years ago. A little further down, and there was another item I recognized as the same as anther wedding gift I had received. Could it be?

My ex-husband had remarried and years later he passed away. Turned out his widow decided to downsize and a lot of stuff was sold to the woman gathering stuff for her tearoom that never happened. It included some of the stuff I had walked away from. I was eager to preview the rest of the boxes to see what else I might find. You guessed it. I found a box that had the pietà in it – MY Pietà. It was in with a bunch of other items, some mine, some I did not recognize. But recognize the Pietà, you bet I did

I was so anxious for the auction to start. I was going to bid on that box and I was going to win the auction. I didn’t care how high I had to bid. I was determined I was going to again be the owner of my Pietà statute.

It took forever to get to that box. The lady had collected a lot of stuff and one box by one box the auctioneer said SOLD and then on to the next one. I didn’t leave my seat for a minute. It didn’t matter how hungry I got or how badly I had to go to the restroom. I was not taking a chance of missing that box, THE box, being auctioned off without my card going up to bid on it.

Finally, it was show time. The box was put on the stand up front. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid and I raised my card. I waiting for someone to out bid me. My hands were shaking with anticipation. But all I heard was silence and then the magic word. SOLD! I won without anyone else bidding. And I won the box for the opening bid amount of $2. Yes. $2. I was so happy no one else seemed to appreciate the beauty of the Pietà.

I paid the cashier as quickly as I could get to the register. I wanted to get the box to my car before someone declared there was a mistake, or a do-over or something. I could not believe after all those years I got my Pietà back and for only $2.

This was by far my most memorable thrift find. I have it on the nightstand in the bedroom and I look at it every day and smile. Welcome home, Pietà.