Many people discover their inner Tea Party Lady during childhood. 
There's a favorite picture of mine that I'll post here, showing children having a tea party. 
I remember envying other children who talked about having tea parties and who had homes and toys and dishes and such. But we never stayed in one place very long, and when we left a place, we were often fleeing and had to leave toys and clothes behind. So the idea of having a tea set, and a table, and other pretty things, was quite foreign to me.
I didn't really understand the joy of a tea party, or the concept of the Tea Party Lady, until much later.
I was first introduced to a TPL - and found my own - when I was 22, through my mother, who at 40, for the first time in her life had the money to buy pretty things. Up until then, our dishes had all been cracked and mismatched, like the furniture, and we had trouble affording peanut butter, let alone anything extra for entertaining. What I didn't realize was that all those years, her inner TPL had been hiding, lurking, frustrated, forced to stay inactive because - as she told me later - it was too painful to let her up and then not be able to really do all the things she wanted to do.
Now that she had the means, her TPL came up with a vengeance, and I watched in amazement as preparations were made for our first big holiday dinner. She put me to work, too, of course, but this time cleaning the house was not a chore. Her TPL infected me with joy and energy, and together we made the house shine. Then we shopped and decorated and cooked and prepared, and in one fell swoop, her inner Tea Party Lady blossomed, and mine was born.
We had many a tea party, she and I. Many fond memories. She's gone now, passed on to that great tea party in the sky. I imagine her there, pouring out, playing "mum" to a gathering of fancy-dressed party-goers. She would love that.
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