Old Dust and Worn Tapestry

Tonight we got Mother's furniture moved into her new apartment. As we pushed the cart through the halls, I had the opportunity to look at all the cobwebs underside of her antique bedstead and chests of drawers. I wondered how many years ago the spiders had been there. Lots of dust and the smell of cedar.

We used to have a very tall cedar tree in our front yard when I was a child. I loved to climb to the very top and hold onto the part that had gotten sheared off when lightning struck. From that spot I could see farms for miles around. When the wind blew, I would sway back and forth and feel free as my mind flew free. One night lightning struck the tree for about the fifth time and it split down the middle and fell into the yard. My dad saved the wood for three years, allowing it to season, before having it sawn into boards. Out of that wood he made what was supposed to be a cedar chest, but that we called a sarcophagus. It was enormous. The rest of the boards were placed in closets and throughout the storage areas of the house.

Tonight I was thinking about that tree and Daddy's joy when he showed Mother the sarcophagus for the first time. He was so proud of it, and it made the whole house fragrant. I could smell the cedar scent on Mother's belongings.

There was Nana's bedroom suite of dark wood with that jiggly, squeaky old metal coil mattress that gave the family newlyweds fits during visits at home. Mother's old sewing machine, on which quilts, suits, dresses, and all sorts of things were made over years and years. And where she made the lavender and purple quilt that she made to surprise my father.

It's a new chapter in Mother's life. I'm honored and privileged to have helped her move, to have her in my home, and to give back something for all she has done for me over the years. The tables have turned and life moves on.