A spray of fine twigs and a bud had been tied up with string. Powder dry, faint imaginings of color tinged the otherwise sepia remains. Maybe the stems were once a sprig of cedar, or lavender. The bud was crushed almost flat—a ghost of a red rose.
Then I read the paper’s notation: “Presented to Mrs Mary B. Ross By Mrs Madison the widow of Ex President [James] Madison.”
The file is dated Sept. 2, 1844, the day of Stapler’s marriage to John Ross.