Letting Go

I have moved from Port Hope to near Belleville, Ontario, which has preoccupied my time from Blogging, and forced some new ways of living on me.

Moving to a smaller home with less storage has made me reassess my attachment to physical objects, like my Mother’s favourite chair pictured here. I estimate I have donated, given away or other wise eliminated over $4,000 worth of tools, machinery, sports equipment and assorted possessions in the past four months- but the Mom’s chair was the last thing I let go.

The chair was made in Canada by Kroehler furniture, a premium furniture company, in 1959. I was with her and my Father when they bought it one dark winter night at Cherney’s furniture store, near where we lived in Oshawa.

It was Mom’s favourite in her later life. When new it was new, she covered it with a throw but uncovered it for guests to sit in at our modest home. As a child, I was prohibited from using it. The pink corduroy fabric shown was the chair’s third reupholstering, circa 1992. I inherited the chair after Mom died in 1995.

For the last 16 years Mom’s chair has occupied a distant corner of an unused sun porch at my home in Port Hope; my cat’s summer bed. I felt a little guilty, but the cat liked it.

I moved Mom’s chair here to Belleville before I could let it go. The photo shows it near the loading dock of Belleville’s Value Village, where I donated it this week to charity. Taking a photo was an afterthought. Not ready to let go completely!

I hope Value Village realise the quality construction of the chair, and restore it some dignified fashion. But what they do with it is beyond my control now.

I have relinquished control over so many things recently. I am starting, as the cliché goes, a new chapter in life, getting to know my new surroundings and re-acquiring some things- making new aquaintences, finding a new health care team… I am the same man, but different.

I have let go, and in that freedom have found new opportunities. I associate with new people. I will make different choices. But I will be the same man.