Kelly fell in love with the chair. Actually there were two chairs but she didn’t know that. The chairs are solid wood children’s chairs painted dark blue. They’re seventy years old. I’ve had them since I was a young child.
Kelly is a good friend with two young children. I debated giving her the chairs but was struggling with the decision. I couldn’t quite figure out why. Kelly’s children are the only little people even remotely in my life. So where else would the chairs go once I’m no longer around? I only use them as stools.
Then I thought of old Mr. Clark. Forty plus years ago, old Mr. Clark was my neighbour in Castleton, a tiny town in Ontario with a general store, post office (in someone’s house) and a garage as its only amenities. Mr. Clark and I would have coffee together two or three times a week and, early on, he gave me a tour of his house. Upstairs in a bedroom, was a lovely old brass bed. I commented that if he ever wanted to sell it, I’d love to buy it. He said nothing. I wasn’t sure he heard me.
One night many months later, old Mr. Clark knocked on the door. It was odd. He didn’t often go out after dark. He came in, declined a seat, and said that if I was still interested in the brass bed, he would sell it to me for $65 but there was a condition. The condition was that I must keep it until I was his age and if and when I sold it, I must sell it for the same price. Mr. Clark was 85. We shook hands.
A month later, old Mr. Clark was in the hospital in Cobourg terminally ill with cancer. It tore me up when I went to visit him. He constantly called out that he wanted to be at home. It took too long, but Mr. Clark died.
Funeral plans and decisions about the house and contents took up much of his son, Keith’s time. I figured that I would forgo the brass bed. Nothing, of course, had been written down. But one day, I decided to mention the brass bed to Keith who said that whatever his Dad had agreed to with a handshake was an agreement to be honored. I paid the estate $65 and the brass bed moved to our house.
Tomorrow, the chairs go to Kelly. She’s agreed to keep them until she’s my age.
Calgary, Alberta
March 4, 2015
P.S. Unfortunately, the brass bed was destroyed in a fire in Ottawa…a whole other story….