VASHON ISLAND, Wash. We all make them. Then we leave them behind. Which makes Madisen Gatemen really happy.

She finds and collects, grocery lists.

"It's something so small that can have so much meaning. A grocery list tells you so much about somebody. "

It started when she worked at the Vashon Thriftway.

"People would come through the check stand and say 'Hey can you throw this away?' I'd say 'Sure.' And I'd kinda glance at it and be like, Hmm. I wonder what's on there."

What she found moved her: "It was so intimate and so vulnerable. And that, I think, is really beautiful in such a simple way. It's somebody's grocery list, you don't think about it.

Now she has more than 700. Written on takeout baskets. On sheet music. On guest checks. Each list, a little story.

One of my favorites is right there. Bananas, and mousetraps, said Gateman, pointing to the brief list. Another is headed: Larrys List. It reads like a to-do haiku: Pepper bacon? Coffee. Lemonade. Frozen Hashbrowns. String for weed whacker, read Madisen, This persons getting stuff done!

Larry's List

Anne Erickson - Evening

Some are strange, some are sad, like one that has a note scribbled on it: This is the last time we went grocery shopping together.

They're all revealing: "What they need. What they don't need. Their desires, their hopes, said Madisen.

She displays her lists on Vashon Island - recently at Snapdragon Bakery. She wants them to be seen and displaying them off-island is the main thing on her 'to do' list.

"They need to be touched, they need to be held and witnessed. They're important."

Some of Madisen Gateman's 700+ grocery lists

Anne Erickson - Evening

Meanwhile, Madisen Gateman has a message for the person who needed 'Bread, Roast Chicken, Ginger Ale and Duck Leashes':

She appreciates your work.

"Someone wrote this, carried it around all day, stuffed it in their pocket, maybe it fell out when they pulled their phone or their wallet out, and they probably never thought of it again. But I did.

Madisen would love to get more grocery lists. Send them to Madisen Gateman PO Box 516, Vashon, WA 98070

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Vashon Island woman finds poetry in grocery lists - KING5.com