“I commented on her kitchen and took note of a sailor’s valentine perched on the countertop behind her. Inside a hexagonal wooden shadow box were gorgeously arranged shells, stones, and sea glass. The valentines were created by sailors in the eighteen hundreds and brought home to their sweethearts after travelling at sea for years at a time (i.e. killing off all the whales for oil).
This valentine held blue shells, green sea glass and stark white stones in a perfect wave-like pattern. A whale bone at the design’s center held one word, until, written in scrimshaw. We travelled to Nantucket every summer and I’d pined over the sailor’s valentines in the Whaling Museum. Such romantic gestures, so filled with longing and homesickness. This one was the most intricate, the most beautiful I’d ever seen.
“That is stunning,” I said, motioning to the valentine.
“Isn’t it?” Pam replied, “It’s the reason I asked you to come.”
— Liz Sower, Creator of Ghosts in the Burbs
You can read the full story here.
