MEMORY OF MOM
Mother’s shell collection united with 2012 poster
A few months ago, a loyal Palm Beach Post reader came to The Post’s office in West Palm Beach.
Christine French had a folded newspaper page in her hands.
It was a beautifully illustrated page of seashells created by Post artist and designer Rebecca Vaughan that ran in the newspaper six years ago.
Christine wanted to know: Could she buy a poster of that page?
Post security guard Eldredge Robinson took her request — and he was the right person to ask.
When Christine returned a couple weeks later, he handed her a glossy copy of the newspaper page. No charge, of course.
Anyone who had loved that page so well deserved to have a glossy copy.
The next day, we received an email from Christine, who shared the story behind the page, and why she cried when she got the poster page.
“When the paper printed this picture (back in 2012), I tore it out knowing that one day I would put it together with my mother’s seashells,” Christine, a Post reader since 1979, wrote. “She had been collecting them ever since she came to Florida 40 years ago. She loved the beaches and loved collecting the shells.
“Each shell was carefully wrapped (ironically in your newspaper) when she had to sell her house and move in with me. Five years later, after she passed away with dementia, I finally unwrapped those shells and the picture. I want to put the two together in a display to honor her memory and the shells she so lovingly collected.”
We asked Christine to tell us more about her mother, and she did:
“My mother’s name was Lillian Theresa French. She was born in Glassboro, New Jersey, in 1928 to immigrant parents from Italy. It was right before the Depression, and they were very poor. There were six children, and her childhood was difficult, to say the least.
“As soon as they were old enough, the kids were put to work in the fields of South Jersey picking crops for 25 cents a day. I remember her telling me that she started school late in September in order to pick peaches and was pulled out in May to plant onions.
“Somehow, she managed to get her high school diploma. She wanted something better than what her small town had to offer
‘On any given day, if you asked Mom what she was doing, she’d say,
‘Oh, you know, playing in the dirt.’’
and traveled all the way to Philadelphia every day (by bus) to work. That would be like going from a rural town like Belle Glade to a town like Miami … worlds apart. But she loved it!
“She started as a clerk — she could type — and eventually worked her way up to become an insurance rater for Aetna Insurance Co.
“It took a lot of courage to step out of that small town and strive for something better, but she was a real career girl and had confidence.
“She was 25 when she married, and she and my father had four children. They moved to Loxahatchee in 1979 to get away from the cold winters, and they were together for almost 30 years before he died of lung cancer at age 59.
She never remarried and continued to work until she retired. She enjoyed her children and especially her five grandchildren. She enjoyed her independence and her life.
She was an avid reader, loved collecting seashells and was a very nurturing person to her family. She was an avid gardener and had beautiful plants and flowers all around her which she enjoyed showing off to anyone who stopped by.
“On any given day, if you asked her what she was doing, she’d say, ‘Oh, you know, playing in the dirt.’”
Lillian French died at 87 in 2016.
Christine put together her display in her mother’s honor, with The Post’s seashells page and her mom’s shells.
“When I look at it, not only will I think of my dear mother, but I also will remember the people at The Post who helped me make my idea happen.”
Thank you for making our day, Christine French.
We at The Post are glad we helped you preserve a beautiful memory.