When my brothers and I were talking about what pieces of Gary's furniture we each wanted to take, the first thing that came to my mind was this old, ugly blue I-don't-know-what-to-call-it. It's a small cabinet that my Dad built out of old scraps of wood for my bedroom at the cottage when I was about 10 years old. When I started working away from home during the summers, Gary took over the blue cabinet. And when we sold the cottage, that was the first thing that Gary put 'dibs' on. I had always loved that ugly little cabinet, because Dad had built it especially for me, but didn't say anything when Gary said he wanted it, in fact, was glad to let him take it, just because I loved him so much and knew that it also gave him a connection to Dad and to the beloved cottage where Gary grew up.
And God knows that it never occurred to me that I would ever have the opportunity to have the blue cabinet, because Gary was the youngest and should have outlived all of us. So it's a bittersweet thing to finally have it sitting in my house.
And hubby hated it. Thought it was one of the ugliest pieces of furniture (if you can even call it that) he'd ever seen, and he tried to persuade me to take one of the nicer pieces. But I was adament. And I wanted it to sit right in the entry hallway to use for recycling papers...it has a little door that closes, and I thought it would look better than the milk crate we've had sitting there for years. Hubby disagreed, but agreed to leave it in the hallway for a few days to see how it would work - well, everytime I looked at it, it oozed Gary's presence. I couldn't bear to part with it. So I stood my ground and insisted that we keep this old ugly blue thing.
Well, today, hubby's outside, fixing the cabinet; he's given it a beautiful new panel backing, put decorative molding around the top of it to hide some of the uglier flaws and has fixed other various holes here and there. He's going to put new "barn door" hinges, a new latch and give it a fresh coat of blue paint. It's turning into a real labour of love for him.
In some ways it's sad to see all the flaws disappearing, since those were part of its character, but in the end, I will know that they're all still there and it will still be the same cabinet that my Dad built and that my brother loved...and it still oozes Gary's presence.
I'm just really touched that my husband loves me so much as to take this old ugly blue thing and turn it into a beautiful keepsake for me to cherish - in more ways than one!
_________________________
When you don't like a thing, change it.
If you can't change it, change the way you think about it.
(Maya Angelou)
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