Guild President Visits Brookline Pomegranates

By Arlene Spector

On October 10 through 12, while I attended the bris of my niece's son in Brookline, Mass., I also visited with several Pomegranate guild members.

The first photo is Mae Rockland Tupa and me in Mae's studio/home in Brookline, Mass. Behind us are the amazing four quilts that she completed thanks to a Pomegranate Guild grant. The rightmost quilt depicts the View of Toledo, Spain.

In the second photo, Mae appears with the quilt that depicts Vilaframes, the village in Spain where she and her husband own a home.

What a very special treat it was when I called upon Mae Rockland Tupa in Brookline. I had originally met Mae at Temple Beth Sholom, Haddon Heights, NJ, when she was giving a presentation on "Jewish Home Beautiful" in the mid-1970s.

I had no idea that every nook and cranny of Mae's Victorian home, built in 1894, would be filled with incredible objects from pottery to tiles, from Amish quilts to cut-paper items. Mae graciously gave my sister and me a two-hour tour of her ten rooms on two floors including her two workshops—one for displaying all of her numerous original works, another for her sewing machine.

She qvelled as she showed me the four quilts that were subsidized with a grant from the Pomegranate Guild. Mae acknowledged that without our support, she would not have been able to finish these quilts. One quilt depicts the View of Toledo, Spain; a second one, Gerona; a third one, San Mateo; the fourth, Vilaframes, the village in Spain where she and her husband own a home.

The afternoon passed quickly, and I knew that she wanted to get to work on her recent quilt before her husband returned. I felt honored and awed by her numerous collections. May she continue the work of her hands and continue to be a legend in our time.

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Posted on October 27, 2003