Final Resting Place

 Pictured above is my much beloved antique metal headboard.   It comes with a matching footboard and rails which hold a full sized mattress.   Much to my husband's chagrin, I've dragged this relic with me wherever we have moved and we put it into good service as a bed in our guest bedroom.    Joel never cared too much for this bed because it was kinda ragged, but I'd put a fresh coat of paint on it and it actually looked pretty cute with all the bedding surrounding it.

Now, what's the significance of this bed in the yard!?!?  Well, now it's a "flower bed"....up at the river....and serves as the "stop" in a golf cart parking area I mapped out for cousin Steve's golf cart when he comes to visit our cabin.   Joel is just happy it won't get dragged around anymore as we sunk it in concrete and this is truly it's final resting place.

Why would I keep this old bed for so many years?   For those of you who have known me a long time, you already know the story.   When I became divorced 36 years ago, things were beyond tight, financially speaking, and one day I went past a home that had the dismantled bed out at the curb.   Next to it was an old dinged up Hoosier cabinet.   I knocked on the door and when a sweet lady answered the knock, I asked her if she would mind if I took her old stuff because I needed a bed and could use the cabinet for something, I was sure.    She invited me in and we chatted for a while and she said she was happy that someone would give her old furniture a new life.

That old bed stood in a bedroom at my apartment for almost 2 years.....it was all set up with the rails and I had painted it white, but I couldn't afford a boxspring and mattress so I was sleeping on a couch.   My dad came by one day and when he went in the bedroom he asked me why I didn't have a bed and I explained that buying groceries for 2 growing kids was more of a priority these days.    A few days later he came by again with a new boxspring and mattress.....I cried....wouldn't you have?

The Hoosier cabinet got cleaned up, too, and I used it as my sewing room.    When the kids and I moved to Florida, we dragged those old pieces with us and they were put to good use in every place we lived.   After I met Joel, we each had to sell several pieces of furniture to fit all of our things in one house, but I wouldn't part with the two salvaged pieces.   By my count, they have been in 10 houses with me over 30 years.  Life is so good for us now, but I never want us to forget where we came from or what the kids and I went through during those rough years.   And this furniture is a bitter sweet memory of years past.

Here is the footboard sitting behind our deck in the back yard at the river.....looks pretty happy to me!   And both pieces look so cheerful all dressed up in red, don't you think so, too?  

Rest in peace bed, you've served me well.
Debbie