Brockton Family Commemorates 100 Years of Family History

From a Brockton Patch reader:

Family memories stain the walls of one Brockton home. Kimberly Allison and her family cherished the house with more than 100 years of first steps, family dinners and games in the backyard. Kim’s grandfather was born in the house in the 1920s, and her grandmother had lived there since marrying in the 1940s. Her mother was born and raised on the property, and her grandmother often cared for her there as a child. Kim's grandmother began to decline in health during fall 2015 and was forced to move out of the house.

Kim wanted her grandmother to have a way to remember the old home. She and her mother commissioned Boston-based ceramics artist Nicole Aquillano, of Nicole Aquillano Ceramics, to create a custom plate with an inlaid image of house with some special details including the garage, the fence and the rock wall because, in her words, “they each have different memories that are just as important as the structure.”

“The garage is where my grandpa always worked in his car and made grilled chicken for me when I was a kid," said Kim. The fence is stockade now, but it used to be white picket that separated my grandma’s yard from my Aunt Phyl’s. My mom’s cousins grew up there, and they were almost like siblings. And I’ve always thought of the rock wall as the home’s pedestal, lifting it from the ground and making if feel that much more sturdy to me.

“I was nervous that my grandma might not recognize it as her house simple because her health was failing rapidly and she really hadn’t seen it from the outside for quite a long time, but as soon as she opened it, she said, 'Oh, it’s my house!' And [she] loved it! She immediately asked my mother to find somewhere to put it where she could see it from her bed, which is the highest compliment a piece can get from my grandmother.”

Kim’s grandmother had been living in hospice care in an assisted living facility until her passing in March. Kim kept the plate in a stand on her bureau, surrounded by photos of her family, where she could see it and its many memories every day.