If you have been following my blogs, you know that my wife passed away two years ago. I broke one of her favorite bowls today and one of her favorite glasses the day before. At this rate I will have gone through all keepsakes by July. I am not sure she would have been too troubled over the glass. But, the bowl would have upset her.

When you break one of these treasured articles, you feel like you have lost the last physical connection to the person who is gone. I think of the beautiful lines from an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem that I will ruin now. But, it goes something like this, with apologies to Liz. “It is not love's going that bothers me so. But, that it went in little ways.”

Usually, I like the sound of breaking glass. I think it is good luck. Have you ever been in a room where you can feel the emotions of the guests rise uncontrollably? You know someone is going to explode. That is the best time to break a glass. All tension shatters with it. Try it. It stops lots of fights. I think that is how the custom of throwing your glass in the fireplace after a toast began. It drives away bad demons. However much I enjoyed it, this particular custom was banned in my house upon the entrance of my wife.

Still, I have had some great glass breaking moments. My favorite was when I ordered new crystal wine glasses, twelve Chablis and twelve Bordeaux. Wine glasses were not on my wife’s must have list. We really couldn’t afford them. But, all winemakers have to have the best glasses. Wines don’t taste the same in lousy glasses. They really don’t. I demonstrated this to my wife who reluctantly agreed that I could buy beautiful new crystal from the world’s finest producer, even though we really couldn’t afford it.

They arrived, and I decide to show off with a party. The party was going extremely well until I decided to wow the guests with my special Cuban bananas and caramel ice cream dessert. First, I presented the final wine of the evening, a Suduiraut. Personally there is nothing better than peach pie and a fine Suduiraut. But it also goes well with my Cuban bananas, which is always a crowd pleaser. I started to take down the heavy dessert bowls from their shelf when I remembered my new Chablis glasses.

Chablis glasses are big round bowls with beautiful long sexy stems. I chilled each glass with spoonfuls of rich cold vanilla ice cream. I placed my hot bananas fried in butter on top of the ice cream. Then I poured gooey warm caramel over the bananas. Finally the finest Cuban rum was heated, sprinkled with cinnamon, and splashed over the caramel. I hurriedly got a glass in front of each guest and proudly instructed them to light their glasses. It was at this point that I noticed my wife raising her hand to get my attention. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that sometimes I am not the brightest candle on the cake. I thought that she must want me to dim the lights so that the flaming rum could do its thing. My wife was still signaling me as the room darkened.

Hot blue flames leaped out of each chilled, beautiful crystal glass that we could not afford, coaxing gasps of pleasure from the party goers. Each gasp was quickly followed by the amazing clink sound which circled around the table, as each beautiful, chilled crystal glass that we could not really afford, took its turn cracking from the intense flame. That was followed by such a menacing look from my wife that I will never forget it. I am glad she didn't see me break her favorite bowl.