The Chair

When we purchased the Cottage all of the furniture came with it. Inside was a little green leather club.

It wasn't going to fit in with the decorating "scheme" so I knew it was going to "go".  After meeting the neighbours next door he asked about the chair, and then told us the story of his Uncle whom would sit in the chair all day long with a case of beer at his side. No one else was allowed to sit in "his chair". We offered the chair to him for his cottage as it seemed it had a neat family history.  He said no, he didn't want it, so I had Bob move it to one of the bedrooms. FYI, it is FREAKING heavy! It has all the burlap seat underneath with proper metal coils from back in the day. 

A few days later we had a knock on the door. Odd, we don't really "know" anyone yet and both of our neighbours had left and had gone back to their homes. Upon answering the man asked if all of the furniture stayed when we took over the cottage. (his English was quite good) (we tried French first, and then when I said something to Bob he quickly switched to English) ;)  

He asked "what were we going to do with the furniture?".  I said in a somewhat leery voice, "use it?" We now were wondering if this guy was a used furniture sales guy?!?!  He then proceeded to tell us about his Mother in Law. It was her Grandfather's chair.  He was the man who built our cottage back in 1972. The chair means a lot to her and she would love to have it, if we didn't want it.  At this point Bob and I were giggling as this chair certainly has a family history! We then said, "Please, of course we would love for you to take the chair!".  He then went back to get the Granddaughter to come and pick up the chair. They came in and reminisced about the cottage and remembered their times there. The Granddaughter at this point kept tearing up. It  was so lovely to be able to give the chair back to the family whom it means so much to. In the meanwhile they said if we ever needed anything to just ask.

We feel quite fortunate that we've joined a community where the neighbours have welcomed us "Anglais" into their community with open arms. We try to speak French as much as possible, and we are even doing a learning app in our free time. Hopefully, we will be able to remember our high school French again after all these years, I admit it is coming back albeit slowly!