Found a weird little ceramic hand in a box of free stuff on the curb in Charlotte

I was walking my dog last Tuesday and saw a soggy cardboard box with a 'FREE' sign, and inside was this perfect, tiny ceramic hand, palm up, like it was holding something. An older man came out of the house and said, 'My wife collected those for forty years, said they were for holding wishes.' I keep it on my kitchen windowsill now, but what do you even do with a thing like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ryanreed11h ago

That line about "quiet, ordinary hopes" from @victor_hill70 really got me. I read an article once about how people used to hide small objects, like carved hands or coins, in the walls of old houses as a kind of blessing for the home. It was never about big stuff, just wanting the house to be safe and full of good days. Maybe that's what she was collecting.

theagarcia4d ago

Used to think stuff like that was just junk, honestly. That old man's story would have changed my mind too. Keeping it on your windowsill is perfect, it's a little piece of someone else's story now. Maybe you just leave it there and let it hold the light, or the view. What kind of wishes do you think his wife had for them?

victor_hill704d ago

Exactly, it stops being junk the second you know where it came from. Found a chipped teacup at a yard sale years ago, and the lady told me her mother drank from it every morning for fifty years. Couldn't just leave it behind after that. Now it sits on my kitchen counter holding pens. Makes you wonder about all the quiet, ordinary hopes people have for each other. Probably simple things, like hoping he remembered to eat lunch, or that they'd get one more trip to the lake together.