Three Questions Before You Give Something Away
On a tired Thursday she nearly carried it to the donation bin outside the grocery store.
Picture a woman named Lorraine, 68, who is packing for a year in a coastal town in Portugal. In her spare room sits the sewing machine she has used for thirty years. It hemmed curtains, school costumes and two wedding dresses. On a tired Thursday she nearly carried it to the donation bin outside the grocery store.
Her friend Betty had a rule for moments like that. Ask three questions first. Lorraine wrote them on an index card and propped the card against the machine.
| Question | What Lorraine found |
|---|---|
| Who comes to mind first? | Nobody, for a full minute. Then Kayla, 19, her neighbor's granddaughter |
| What would she do with it? | Sew costumes for a college play. She had been borrowing a machine that jammed |
| Could I hand it to her myself? | Yes. Kayla lives two streets away |
Lorraine remembered Kayla at the fence last spring, holding a bag of fabric and asking about the pattern on Lorraine's curtains. She rang the neighbor and asked if Kayla could stop by on Saturday.
Kayla came with her mother. Lorraine set the machine on the kitchen table, threaded it and pressed the pedal. The needle jammed and the thread knotted into a ball underneath.
Lorraine's stomach dropped. She had promised a good machine and was holding a tangle. She lifted the metal plate and found a wad of lint, brushed it out with a small brush and threaded the needle again. This time the stitches ran straight.
Kayla sat down and sewed a seam on a scrap of cotton. Then she looked up and said, “My costume is due Friday. Could I start tonight?”
Lorraine called Betty that evening. “The machine gave me thirty years of sewing,” she said. “Then it gave me Saturday.”
You could…
- Write your own three questions on a card and carry it through one room.
- Say aloud the name of the first person who comes to mind, even if you doubt they would want the thing.
- Ask a neighbor, a school or a club who is looking for what you have.
- Keep the bin for the things that bring no name to mind.
Which thing in your home would you most like to see in use again, and whose name came first? Tell us in the comments, with the name if you wish. A reader still searching for a name to put on a card could get an idea from you.
Tell us in the comments