My mother's silver spoons: essay in the Globe

(I didn't realize the essay is behind a paywall. If you'd like to read it, please email me, beth@bethkaplan.ca, and I'll email it to you.)

During the nineties and early two-thousands, I published scores of essays in the Globe and Mail's Facts and Arguments section. It was an ideal venue for short personal essays; I'd write something on Monday, edit Tuesday, send it in on Wednesday, and it'd appear two weeks later - a thrilling timeline for an actress used to applause, unused to the incredibly slow, drawn-out process of producing a book.

But then they stopped paying even a measly $100, and I stopped writing for them. Insulting to expect writers to write for free, though I kept steering my students to that page, and scores of them have appeared there. 

But recently I finished an essay and thought of the Globe. I can live without the $100, just wanted to get the piece out. So I sent it in, and here it is. Have received kind emails, one from a friend who said her mother collected thimbles which were divided amongst her sibs after her mum's death, and now she owns twelve. Twelve thimbles, just, like a long-handled stuffing spoon, what one needs. 

Here are some other notes I've received, which simply shows what kind, appreciative friends I have.

"Just beautiful Beth—kind of heart breaking. And 'mole people'! OMG that phrase will stay with me forever." 

"It was touching and funny and haunting."

"The title drew me in but when I looked down to the writer’s name and saw yours, I knew it would be good. Brava!"

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/first-person/article-the-romance-of-silver-and-of-londons-silver-vaults/