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"Japanland"
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"The Sewing Circles of Herat"
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"High Fidelity"
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"In the Garden of the North American Martyrs"
by Tobias Wolff


Thursday, January 25, 2007

Jigsaw Puzzles

My father would carefully look at the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle laid out on the dining room table. The rest of us would try one piece after another, and then Daddy would pick up a piece and put it in place. He had a wonderful eye for finding the right size, shape and colored piece to fit a particular spot. Some of my sisters have that kind of gift as well.

One year my two little sisters and I each received a relatively simple jigsaw puzzle. We put those puzzles together over and over again. Then we started putting them together upside down so we couldn’t see the pictures. Next we started mixing the puzzle pieces together and assembling the three of them together simultaneously. We could get very creative.

I don’t know if that is why I love jigsaw puzzles, but I do. My daughter and I used to assemble a jigsaw puzzle together every New Year’s Day. We would watch the Rose Parade and the football games and work on the puzzle. We have one of the largest collections of 999 piece puzzles. They, at one time, were 1000 piece puzzles but when a piece would get dropped on the floor, our dog or dogs would eagerly chew on them and make them impossible to insert in the puzzle. They had such a great time helping us in that way. . . and they were so cute.

My sister-in-law, Muriel, always had a jigsaw puzzle going and we spent many happy hours working on them. Mur was a night roamer – she would get up at night and work on the puzzle or eat a cookie or read and then go back to bed. As time goes on I miss her more and more. She had such a zest for life and an interest in a multitude of things. She was a wonderful, God-given gift not only to her sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, brother and the rest of the family, but also and especially to me.

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