What Are the Chances?

Nearly 40 years ago my brother and sister and I purchased a Danish modern rocking chair with a woven back and seat. Our father had just moved back to the States from Saudi Arabia to set up residence in Virginia Beach and continue his fight against Stage IV colon cancer, and we were in charge of furnishing the three bedroom ocean view apartment where we would be living. Our 20 something tastes took us to Conrans in Georgetown where we found a couch and an arm chair in their scratch and dent section, along with the rocker, some blond-wood end tables and matching coffee table on the showroom floor.

All of that furniture stayed with one or the other of us for many years after my dad died: the coffee table was painted periwinkle; the couch was reupholstered twice; and the chair moved to California and back with my sister. So when the rocking chair got torn to pieces by our cats, I couldn’t part with it, as unsightly as it was. 

Somewhere along the line, I took the chair apart and brought it to school, storing it in my closet. I’m sure my plan was to have it fixed and put it in my classroom, but it’s been in storage for at least 25 years. And I’m not sure what made me decide that this was the summer when I would finally have it restored, but on the last day of school I pulled the rocker from the closet and carried it out to the car. 

In the days following, I made several calls and sent even more emails and texts with pictures of the shredded roping, in an attempt to get an estimate for repair. All the replies were the same, though: nobody I contacted did weaving. During my research I came across some similar chairs that were selling for between six and twenty-two hundred dollars. I also found some DIY videos that made reweaving a chair seat look relatively easy.

I made up my mind and ordered the Danish cord I would need for the job from a specialty supply store. The job seemed both straightforward and complicated, and I thought that more eyes and hands would help, so I came up with the idea to bring the project along on our upcoming vacation. Then I would have not only me and Heidi to figure things out, but also Bill, Emily, Victor, and Treat. Surely with the six of us on the task we could resolve any unforeseen complications and make quick work of it, too. Plus it seemed like it might be fun to learn to weave and restore a piece of family history.

This afternoon I arrived at the cabin in WV where we will spend the next week eager to present my project proposal to the group. I was talking it up as we carried all of our luggage and supplies into the spacious house, pointing out how satisfying a way it might be to spend a rainy day. A little while later, when I was on the lower level where Heidi and I have our room, I walked over to explore the small sitting room that is down here. 

“No. Way!” I whispered to myself, for there was the very rocking chair that I sought to restore.