Alan Rosen

This simple cup, saucer and plate matching set is quite ordinary and plain looking, yet it holds significant emotional, sentimental and historical importance to me.

I purchased them in a little village in Lithuania in June, 1983. It is the ancestral home of my paternal grandfather, my “Grandpa Louie” -- a gentleman I never knew, although he briefly knew me. He passed away in 1952, when I was ten- months-old. I always desired to know him.

After researching the little village itself (with some difficulty in the days before Google) , I received permission from the then Soviet government to visit. With KGB “tour guides,” of course. There, in the only shop in the entire village, a true “general store,” I purchased that cup, saucer and plate. Upon my return, I presented it to my folks as a keepsake, which they kept on display.

Dad passed in 2005, and Mom passed in 2013, whereupon I brought the items back to my home in Hawaii, where now I keep them on display.

A simple cup, saucer and plate. They hold memories of my mom and dad and the grandpa I never knew and the village I journeyed 6,000 miles to find.