As I brushed my teeth tonight I glanced around my bathroom and for some reason, my eyes and thoughts turned to a bar of soap that I’ve had for nearly twenty-five years.
It’s a beautiful bar of soap.
It still smells like soap.
It somehow moved and followed me from Webb Road to Alexandria Drive to Nottingham Road to Modaus Road to County Road 460 and now resides in my bathroom on Davidburg Road.
Many years ago, my young family would take in foreign students from the U of D’s English Language Institute. Among these students were Yeon Joon Kim (from Korea), Emily (from France), Khalifa (from the UAE) and Marra, from Brazil.
Marra taught English in Brazil, was married and had a young child (a boy, as I recall, about 15 months old) and periodically would come to the US for professional development and brushing up on her English skills.
I liked Marra in particular. She was more toward my age at that time, and I remember we had some fun times together. In particular, I remember she wanted to go shopping and we took a drive to the outlets in Lancaster. For me, that was a significant outing at that time.
When Marra went back to Brazil, she left us some gifts and this hand-painted bar of soap was one of them. I always thought it was just too pretty to actually use. Over the years I’ve displayed it for a decorative touch. Currently I have it sitting in my bathroom windowsill, along with some other “bathy type” knick-knacks including an Avon Clown Shampoo bottle I had as a child with removeable eyes and a smile that can spin up or down. It was a playtoy that women my age might remember having in their childhood baths.
For some reason, I decided that at this point in my life, it was simply time to use this bar of soap!
I’m wondering if the metallic paint will dissolve in the water…
Thank you again, Marra!
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