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" I pointed to the vase. “Why didn’t you use that one?”
“I’ve never put anything in it.”
“Why not?”
“The first time my third husband invited me to his parents’, it was for an interminable Sunday lunch. I needed a break and stepped from the room.”
“I can understand that.”
“When I returned, his mother was criticizing me: ‘She’s cold. Too intellectual. So old she’s barren.’ Before he could reply, I told them I was leaving. The next day, he came by my office with that vase. When he said it reminded him of me, I replied, ‘Cold, hard, and empty?’ ”
“What did he reply?”
“That it was a work of beauty. Full of life, yet able to hold so much. Perfect all by itself. "
― Janet Skeslien Charles , The Paris Library