Baby Shoes, Giant Steps
By raincoasterWorking as I do for the Manolo I am perhaps hypersensitized to the semiotic power of the shoe (and I may or may not be PMSing additionally but that is neither here nor there and nothing a little Merlot won’t put right) and yet I defy anyone to view the Guardian’s slideshow of magical realist Isabel Allende’s mementos and remain stonefaced when they see these.
“My son is my soul. These were his first shoes. I have a splendid relationship with my daughter-in-law and we work together in the foundation. Today there are 27 million slaves in the world, mostly women and girls. I know for the rest of my life that this is going to be my mission and my struggle”
If that doesn’t get you, A) see your doctor and B) click on to see the next image…
“These were Paula’s slippers. Once a year we have a ceremony to remember Paula and we take them out”
The Isabel Allende Foundation was founded in memory of Allende’s daughter Paula Frias, who died at the age of twenty-eight. See the two pictures of those two pairs of shoes? Two thousand words. Two hundred thousand words.
