At first I didn’t realise what they meant.
I said, 'No.'
Then came the day when I said, 'Yes.'
The day I said yes was the day my whole life changed.
Within days I watched it all going away: the table and chairs, the coffee table, the wardrobes, the beds… How did I feel? I felt terrible. Terrible and tired. But the changes kept happening. The china cabinet, the big brown armchair…
This armchair. This armchair could not be let go. My whole family had sat in this chair: my mother, my father, my two sisters, my brother, me. This chair had been part of all our lives. This chair meant family, my life, my home.
That tiring, terrible day, I shut the front door for the very last time.
Things change. I am in sheltered housing today. But here the old brown armchair sits and in it I sit.