Faded, creaky, the kind of wood that had long since lost its varnish but not its charm. It was nearly identical to the one Mom used to sit in on our old porch, humming to herself while the sun sank behind the trees. She’d sip peppermint tea and knit, her feet nudging the floor in a slow, steady rhythm.
Without thinking, I sat in it.
The chair groaned under my weight, then settled, like it remembered the job. I rocked once. Twice. The air shifted. The ache in my throat loosened.
“Was my wife’s favorite,” the old man said quietly, suddenly beside me. I hadn’t noticed him walk over. He looked at the chair, not me. “She passed last spring.”
Our eyes met. Something unspoken passed between us—a simple, shared understanding of what it means to lose someone who shaped your world.
I bought the chair. Paid in cash. Didn’t haggle.
He helped load it into the trunk, right beside the box of sweaters. As I drove away, the wind carried the scent of cut grass through the open window, and the tears I’d been holding back finally came. But they weren’t bitter. Not entirely. There was something soft in them. Something like peace.
Mom was gone. But maybe, just maybe, there were still pieces of her waiting for me in unexpected places—on winding roads, behind hand-painted signs, in old wooden chairs that remembered how to hold a person gently.
And maybe I didn’t need to rush home just yet.
