The Red Chair

THE RED CHAIR

The Red Chair was part of our beginning. When we set up our first apartment together our living room set was one of the first things we chose together. A couch and chair. It was hard to think about what they would look like from just a small piece of cloth. We chose red for the chair and gold for the couch. It took three months to be delivered. It was going in a small room with green wallpaper, gold print drapes, my blond hope chest and the gold lamp we had so much fun buying on sale, so rich looking!

But on the day of delivery only the couch came. I stayed home all day waiting, I was so disappointed Dick was mad real mad. Another three weeks and it finally came. Everything blended and it felt so nice and warm (and GOD knows we needed things to look warm in that house that cold winter). You could curl up in it to read, watch T.V. (ten inch screen),snuggle up and later feed Donna our first born.

We moved to a larger apartment The Red Chair came with us and fit in the corner with the new end tables and recliner chair. But the Red Chair was the chair to sit in to sew, read, and Donna could climb up and watch Mr. Rogers. And many nights pregnant with our son, I fell asleep in it waiting for Dick to come home from his second job. We bought a house and the Red Chair came with us. New House big rooms. The Red Chair was the place to sit, feed, hold, love and cuddle George, our new baby now.

I guess The Red Chair had become part of us by now. We bought a cat; he like the chair too. He like to claw at its legs until we had slip covers made, orange with brown trim. But we still called it The Red Chair. Then we made a T.V. room and the The Red Chair stayed in the parlor. We didn’t us the The Red Chair often any more. The parlor was a place for company or to be alone and think. The birth of Linda, our second daughter, makes three children now, and the Red Chair was a place to sit with the hurt or sick child away from other. And sometimes it was a place to be punished in “Go sit in The Red Chair until you can tell me why you’re crying”.

I would yell when one of them seemed to be crying for no reason, and sometimes they might fall asleep while they sat there. “Go sit in The Red Chair until the timer goes off “when one of them did something wrong. Sit-in The Red Chair and think it over we will be in to talk about it when some kind of decision had to be made. Always The Red Chair.

But every now and then it was nice to sit away from the T.V. and everyone. No one could see you there in the corner. It was still a comfort place. Four children now and a husband, home more often. He sat in The Red Chair now, fed Cheryl Ann and laughed with our new baby girl because he never had time to be with the others. Big changes in our lives The Red Chair was there.

After four kids, three dogs, two cats, hamsters, and a rabbit. We bought a new living room set. But couldn’t part with The Red Chair. So I put it up; in our bedroom, new slipcovers, blue still felt good. The kids were older. Always other kids in the house, noisy. The Red Chair was upstairs offering quiet and comfort, to read or just look out the window. Well we put a T.V. in our room and there was no room for the chair.

So The Red Chair went to our teenage daughter’s room. She and her friends talked, planned, and laughed and The Red Chair shared it all. It also collected a weeks’ worth of clothes and every Saturday it was cleaned off and then came “The Big Saturday” when her wedding dress was draped over it. She moved away, but The Red Chair stayed and I cried. Daughter number 2 took the room over. The Red Chair new sip covers managed to get through college studying, music, friends, and it too collected a weeks’ worth of clothes. But every Saturday was cleaned off. She moved to her own apartment and left The Red Chair. By then daughter number 3 wanted more shelves, drawing table. No room for The Red Chair, so it went on the back porch after a while it became the dog’s chair and the flea chair. Came time to be thrown away. But I didn’t have the heart to throw away the cushion it was thirty-two years, four children and three grandchildren, me and the Red Chair have lived a life time.

I just can’t throw away all the love and life The Red Chair is part of me I’ll keep the red cushion for a while, I feel safe.

Claire J. Fraser

Claire passed away February 21, 2024 at 2:56 am