Mine

This is my bunny plate, which has been with me for most of my life. Once upon a time I had a cereal bowl to match, well not match exactly, as the pictures were different, but it was a Barbara Vernon Bunnykins by Royal Doulton. My cereal bowl also had rabbits running around the top edge, something I thought gave it superiority over my sister's bowl that was of a different style and minus the folded back top edge. My bunny plate has spent much of its life in a china cabinet, although that hasn't saved it from mishap. Many years ago a heavy item was dropped on it causing it to snap straight in half. I was devastated, seeing it as something of an antique. I was all of 17 at the time and had had the plate since new, so I'm not sure what I was thinking about myself. It may have had something to do with being newly married and feeling the weight of my years. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out and had no idea how to fix it, so I stuck it back together with Tarzan's Grip. Skip forward 40 years and the same plate still held pride of place in my china cabinet, treasured despite the wide yellowed glue strip that had separated the pillow fighters, when I married my present husband - a fine arts restorer who did such an excellent job on restoring my plate no one would ever know it had been broken. One day we will have to part company, the plate and I, not husband and I, although one of us will also be whisked away one day leaving the other to catch up. I've sometimes wondered should I give my plate away to a good home, but how do I choose the recipient fairly? The truth is, I can't, and one day I suspect my dear plate will end up in a box of sundries at a clearance sale and find its own new home. Until then, it is mine.