Before
Rachel and her siblings were cleaning out their Mums house because she had finally decided that now was the time for a new adventure. She had found a lovely community full of people her own age who didn’t have the energy to keep up their own homes anymore but still had a lot of life to live.
She had spent the past few months choosing the things from her home that she wanted to take with her. That was an incredibly difficult task as almost everything in her home was precious in one way or another – some had been gifts, others had been purchased while on holidays she didn’t want to forget and still other objects dated all the way back to her youth or had been passed on by dead relatives.
However she was up for the task and she knew that on the other side of it she would feel much lighter, not as weighted down by the objects she had spent an entire lifetime collecting. She had a lovely few weeks choosing who to gift some of her favorite things to and visited each and every family member, close friends and even some recent acquaintances passing along her precious items along with their history and any stories attached to them.
The brand new apartment that she was going to could still house a lot of her most cherished belongings and she found it fascinating how she knew exactly which pieces to take with her, which to gift and which could find a new home via a second hand store. She felt as though she had been preparing for this moment for years and there were only two items she was still not sure what to do with and so she shrewdly took these with her until they let her know what to do with them next. Eventually the last moving day of her life arrived and she was able to close her bright red door for the last time without a backwards glance.
She felt as excited as a school girl to see what was going to happen next and as she was in her mid-eighties that was a welcome feeling. So it was left for the rest of her family to box up the contents of her home that she neither wanted to take with her or to give away and because their Mum had reached such an impressive age there was a lot to sort through. They put things into two categories – one for the local second hand store and one for the tip and because they were intelligent people the first pile was very large. Just because one person is done with a thing does not mean that it is no longer worthwhile, people need to remember that when it comes to people as well.
One object in particular gave them all pause for thought – it was or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it had been at one point of its life a pillow. However this particular pillow was stretching the definition of that word – it was thread bear and I am being kind! It had been made from a small amount of both down and feathers and its contents had either always been very limited or it had lost its plumpness over time. Either way it was a very sorry sight indeed and it came alarmingly close to being put in the pile of things to be taken to the tip.
And so it was that one day Mr. Hope arrived on the doorstep of a home that had the brightest red door he had ever seen along with a much loved garden which he admired. He helped the family members pile all the boxes, containers and clothes into his van, thanked them for thinking of Mrs. Hopes Second Chance Emporium and drove back to the store. He knew that Mrs. Hope would now have a day full of pleasure as she opened boxes, removed wrapping paper and found the exact spot for her new stock.
Mr. Hope loved Mrs. Hope to the point of distraction but where he saw tatty objects she saw treasures and they would never agree on this point and so they cleverly never brought it up.
During
Once Mr. Hope along with a hand from Mrs. Hope had emptied the contents of the van she got to work in earnest. She found the worse for wear pillow wrapped around a small ceramic cat and was about to throw it into her own pile of things for the tip when she felt a tingle in her fingers.
Mrs. Hope had felt this enough times in the past to know that it meant this shabby object was destined to have another life no matter what it looked like. Early in her career as a second chance curator she had felt that tingle and dismissed it only to find that later a customer had asked for that exact object and she realized once and for all that beauty really was in the eye of the beholder. Things that she thought were useless were in fact prized by another.
So when Mrs. Hope felt that tingle she knew that as far-fetched as it seemed this faded and timeworn pillow was destined for a new life. She popped it in the section that housed pillows, quilts and other assorted bedding and looked forward to meeting its new owner.
After
Some people are just high maintenance and those people tend to start this trait from a very early age – this was true of Gekka. She had a real first name but her younger sister could not say it and shortened it to Gekka - the nickname had stuck. Gekka was high maintenance but she had a lovely heart which made up for this one flaw in her personality. She liked things to be – just so and even as a child she was very neat and tidy. She was also very particular about her pillows, actually she was very particular about her only pillow.
The pillow in question was very thin and made from kapok but it was exactly what Gekka’s head needed to rest upon in order to fall asleep. Many children have a toy that they take with them everywhere in the case of Gekka it was her pillow which actually resembled something like a pancake with material added in for good measure. Gekka’s family was driving to Featherston to visit family and somehow when they were loading up the car the dilapidated pillow was left behind.
So it was that when the family were unpacking their car that Gekka realized her beloved shabby pillow was a full car ride away. She began to cry with such earnest that little bubbles of snot came out of her nose which her younger sister found fascinating. Gekka’s mother realized the enormity of this loss and so she shot a prayer up to the second hand Gods, loaded Gekka into the car and drove to the local second hand store to see if they might have something worse for wear and tacky enough to meet her little princess’s needs.
Gekka’s Mum loved second hand stores and she was clever enough to sense the moment she stepped in the door that this was a place of magic and wonder and might just have what they were looking for. Gekka’s Mum explained to the lady behind the counter what and why they were looking for a down at the heel, flattish pillow. Mrs. Hope took the small child who was still hiccupping with sorrow and the weary Mum to her bedding section but she already knew that they would find exactly what they needed and it made Mrs. Hope squirm with pleasure inside.
Pillows were picked up, examined and rejected until they came upon the worn out and worse for wear offering. Gekka finally stopped grieving for her left behind pillow and rejoiced that there was another pillow out there that would cradle her head in the same way but she needed to test that hypothesis.
She had her Mum hold out her hands palms up, placed the seedy padding between them and then tested it for the correct ratio of feathers, down and material by putting her head between her Mum’s hands on top of the pillow. She found it to be precisely what she was looking for and her mother was able to exhale after what felt like a long time.
Once the pillow had been unearthed both Gekka and her mother spent a delicious hour rummaging around the store and left with the flawless pillow and few other treasures.
The only thing that is left to tell you is this – Gekka grew up to become an adult who continued to have exquisite taste. Later in life she brought Hungarian goose down pillows which have the thickest quantity of down to feathers which she coupled with Mulberry silk pillow cases. If you are going to do a thing – you might as well do it right!