This is my sweet mom 51 with my beautiful niece Tracy.

The chair she is sitting in represents memories from our family. It was her favorite chair. I still remember how mad she was when we finally took a picture of it and threw it out and bought her a new one. It had lived it’s life but she loved that chair.

I sat in that chair late at night doing homework, reading, and watching TV. One late night I watched Interview with the Vampire – why I remember that memory, I’m not sure but it does stand out.

Why did mom love this chair so much? Because it linked her to my dad and our life – before the divorce when we lived near Bargersville in the huge house. The house that we were forced to leave when my dad left. We couldn’t find him for a while. Mom drove us around – we slept in the car and in a few motels before moving in with my Uncle Bob and his family. When dad came back around, he moved us into the Hilltop Motel. Finally, we moved to the apartment my mom lived in for 34 years.

Dad went to the barn where our stuff was stored and brought us some of the furniture. This chair and the curtains you see were a part of that delivery.

Mom loved both, the chair and the curtains. She held tightly to the material things that brought her close to our life pre-divorce. She loved on us and my niece Tracy and the other grandkids that came along the way. She wished I would have kids but I told her I was a better aunt 🙂 I loved visiting and would joke around with her that I can take them and give them back – I liked that.

She spent a lot of time in this chair. It was old. It was broken. But it was beautiful. It represented what held us together as a family. Late nights, Pringles with melted American cheese, lots of read pages, crafts, and more occurred, snuggled in this old chair – the chair that reveals how closely mom held onto things and why she never threw anything away. This chair will always be close to our hearts.