Meet Tiffany

In 1977 my parents built their dream house. Just before I turned two years old we moved in. My mom bought a Tiffany light for this 1970s color-schemed house. In the kitchen for ten years hung this red, orange and marigold yellow light over the table that sat on a linoleum floor of similar colors surrounded by marigold yellow appliances. 

After we moved the decor changed to paisleys and blues and greens, with no place for Tiffany. She was hugged in multiple layers of bubble wrap and moved into the attic. Eventually she and the other contents of the house moved south in 1999. 

Sometime in the early 2000’s my mom came to visit me in my home in Wisconsin. We were in my kitchen surrounded by walls of an updated marigold yellow color and valances hung over the windows filled with crimsons, olive and subdued oranges and yellows. It was at that moment she thought about Tiffany and told me she would look great in this kitchen and she wanted me to have it. I have no recollection of how or when Tiffany wrapped in her bubble wrap blanket moved into my attic. There was no road trip between WI and FL, so she must have moved here in 2009 on the U-Haul truck I drove after my mom passed away. 

Nearly five years later she was moved into a new home and unwrapped to reveal numerous panels cracked and one missing. To put it frankly, Tiffany was in deep disrepair. I knew she had cracks, but had no idea the extreme until recently. To my surprise it didn’t take long to hear about Old Hickory Stained Glass in Onalaska, WI where a man named Bob had been creating and working with stained glass since 1976, around the time Tiffany was likely born. I never met Bob, he was a behind the scenes kind of guy, but my expectations and hope were high. A few months later I picked up Tiffany only to discover she was beautiful! Yesterday she was hung in my new kitchen of the same yellow walls and I am convinced this kitchen was built for her, more so than the one my mom remembered her in.

After 27 years in storage she hangs with dignity and grace, a centerpiece restored by an artist who was able to match her glass nearly perfectly simply because his years of experience rival her age. I was told he was amazed she was still around, these pieces were not built to last he said, he reinforced her and I believe was in awe of her as I was told if she begins to sag he will happily reinforce her again.