Just as I sat down to write my monthly column for The Alabama Baptist, the phone rang. It was a welcome call that my beloved chair would be delivered in a few minutes.
The beautiful green antique chair with the caned bottom — once it had been a show piece, but in time, it had become pathetic to look at, and there was no hope for its beauty to be restored.
A statement from my son, a minister in Vero Beach, Fla., however, prompted this mother into action. “Mom, I would give anything to have that green chair that Dad used to sit in so much,” he said. “Is there any way for it to be restored? I want to put it in my office at church.”
I didn’t think it could and told him, “You have no idea how long that chair has been in the family, moved from town to town. I just keep it around for memory’s sake. I think it is beyond repair.”
The conversation ended but his words stuck with me and before I knew it, I was calling a furniture restoration store in the area.
The chair has now been restored and delivered. Now, as I look with pride on what looks like a brand new chair, my thoughts turn to family. How many family members would testify to the precious moments spent rocking on a front porch?
The beloved chair first entered the family as my husband’s grandmother, “Mammy,” spent endless hours rocking and “preaching” in her Presbyterian style. “What is to be will be and nothing will change that,” she would say.
I can still hear her talking about her family and how much she loved her husband, who was taken much too early in life. “Family is the most important thing in life,” she said. “My mother always taught me about God, loyalty, patience and being understanding and I never forgot her words.” Today, as I rub my hands over the arms of this old chair, I remember how she taught us that families pass on the faith.
I also remember my husband’s father in the chair. A man of pride and love for the Lord, he did not rock quite as hard as “Mammy,” but he “preached” in his Baptist style.
“Money isn’t everything,” he would say. “Always remember that. It is love for one another and being together that counts.”
He made family fun as he would take one of the small children in his lap and rock away. He had a deep base voice and would sing as he rocked. My son Bob, who wants this chair, was rocked to sleep many a night on that front porch — and not only by his granddad but by his dad, for whom he is named.
The elder Bob, my husband, was not much of a singer, but he could sure tell jokes and funny stories as he rocked much too fast trying to get our son Bobby to sleep. And then there were the Bible stories. Bob was a master storyteller.
As I reminisce, I am mindful of the fact that all of us should spend more time on the front porch, in rocking chairs, slowing down long enough to paint memories, to love one another, to be aware that love lost in a family can be restored just as this revered rocker has been restored to once again bring joy to those who will stop long enough to rock and pray, sing to and cuddle a child — just take the time to live like God intends for us to.
I cannot wait to surprise my son with the gift of this chair. I can picture it now as it sits in his office at the church. His dad would be proud and so would his grandparents and great-grandmother.
Share with others: