Introduction
In my last blog I was saying how we are often really touched by the reasons people chose particular pieces and what part of your journey our little pieces become a part of in your lives…. Recently we were privileged to find out more about Angela’s idea for one of our little Personalized Miniature Tokens. She wanted to link their family together… and this is the story.
When Angela ordered 40 Personalised Miniature Token Golden Crosses for a First Holy Communion in April, I was intrigued to find out the story behind it. She was immediately fascinating as she had an Italian name, a delivery address in Brussels and an email address from Australia! I emailed her as soon as I found out about the order to find out if it was ok to have a chat and fortunately she agreed.
We had a wonderful chat on the phone, she told me that Corinne had been great getting everything sorted out for her. Angela told us that she had first seen and bought from our collection in a gift shop in Perth, Australia called The Gallery of Claremont (lovely customer for years – thank you Claremont!), and having moved to Brussells more recently, she was prompted by a Spaceform Instagram post that caught her eye and encouraged her to look at our personalised glass section on our website. She was interested in a few different Cross motifs and with a few back and forth emails we tailored the wording she wanted on a new Golden Cross Miniature Token for her.
Angela told me her and her husband's parents are of Italian descent and both sets of Grandparents had moved from Italy to Australia after WW2. I felt an instant connection, as my grandmother's brother, who is a bit of a legend in our family, married an Australian girl Muriel and they too emigrated to Australia, in the 1950’s. My Dad told me stories of Fred Poyton as one of the few survivors of the HMS Repulse that sank by land-based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 10 December 1941. (Read more here) They spent their later years in Perth Australia too and recently his granddaughter Alice came to London, and we met for the first time.
I really related to Angela as she told me how she felt about the importance of family. She has been brought up a Catholic and so First Holy Communion has always traditionally been a significant occasion for family to get together. As I mentioned earlier, Angela and her husband had recently moved for work reasons, from a the port of Fremantle, in Western Australia, to Brussels. The majority of family on both sides remained in Australia and although they were so far away she really wanted to be able to link her family to the Communion of her two eldest children, and somehow have her family feel that although they were physically a long way away, that they had been or where in spirit always going to be a part of this moment in their childrens lives.
Angela was looking to find something for her relatives, that was neutral in order to represent both her 9 year old daughter, Alessandra and her 7 year old son, Mario, who are preparing for their Holy First Communion together. It is a really meaningful time for Christians, Pope Francis has called it the “Sacrament of Love”. I was really taken when she told me, not just because she chose to celebrate with our tokens, but the consideration that it took for her to decide that she wanted something that would represent her family having been a part of their day (when I say "their", I mean the whole family – not just the kids). She wanted to take it easily back to Australia with her and have something that specifically indicated the celebration.
It was about family, connecting and linking all of the significant people together, and I felt really proud that our glass token was the symbol of this idea.
Angela, you were fab to talk to, and I hope the day is smashing (no glass though please!) Do send pics of the kids, I would love to add them to our blog if you you would like to. xx
A Small Note: Do get in touch if you would like to write something on one of our tokens slightly differently to the way we have styled it on our website, we can adapt very easily so you are 100% happy with the outcome.