The party was held in July, 1981; it was our daughter's fifth birthday and everyone gathered around this table. It was one of the first major furniture purchases that Mr. Goodneedle and I made as newlyweds, we bought this table and chairs along with a credenza base and hutch top in 1977. Through the years there were MANY celebrations that occurred around this table; many blessings asked over family feasts and prayers raised with hands joined together, many homework assignments were completed on its surface, gifts were wrapped and quilt blocks cut and laid out. This table marked our family's growth as it moved with us from place to place around the world before it settled, finally, as a work table in my sewing room at our current home. In 2008 Sundance moved into my sewing space and the table had to find a new home, there simply wasn't enough room for both. By this time the above-mentioned base unit had come to find a permanent home in our kitchen's breakfast nook and we had long since donated the hutch top to charity. A newer cherry table and upholstered chairs had taken up the place of honor in our current dining room. Right around this same time, five years ago, our daughter and son-in-law bought a home and needed furniture for their dining room. The timing was perfect and off went this table and chairs to live in the Capital City; I would visit it from time to time and couldn't resist lovingly running my fingers along the chair backs or the table edge, contours that were so familiar to me. The children were under no obligation to keep it forever, it was a gift to help them out at the time; it certainly wasn't the furniture
they would have chosen but they used it, and enjoyed it, while it stayed at their home... until earlier this week when they donated it to the
Helping Hand Mission. They have new furniture ordered and I couldn't be happier for them! We received a thank you note today from our sweet son-in-law, he wrote: "
the guys that picked it up were appreciative and commented several times about how nice it was and how someone would have a very nice Thanksgiving around it". What a loving thing for him to do: write us a note and convey those words, I am so pleased to think that this table,
our table, will reside in a new home with a new family! Many happy occasions have been marked around this table; but it's not the end...far from it, there are so many more yet to come!
Life is Good!
5 comments:
I have the pine harvest table that was made by my father in the attic workroom in the house I first lived in as a child. It was used as our kitchen table in that home and as my Mom's sewing table in our next home. When I moved out into my first apartment, it became my dining room table. When my grandmother died I received her dining room table and the old pine table came apart and went to live under my parents bed. Fast forward 20 years and the table is once again in use - as my sewing table!
By the way, have you signed up for your Mid-Atlantic classes yet? I got my confirmation in the mail today - can't wait!
What a sweet story!
Beautiful story, thanks for sharing.
What a nice perspective. We sometimes get too attached to our "things". It is the memories that matter, and I love the idea that some other family will now enjoy making memories around it.
Lovely story! We bought an oak pedestal table with two big leaves and have custom-distressing it ever since, about 25 years now:) I hope one day it gets handed down like yours !!
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