My Chair

The wingback chair I sit in during my video interviews is special to me.  It had belonged to my father.  Dad typically left all the shopping to my mother, but the chair caught his eye at a church flea market where he was scouring for books for his various collections. The chair had been covered in a cheap, shiny, dark green vinyl, with a large rip across the seat.  In an unusual act of independence, he bought the chair, duct-taped the seat and installed it in their master bedroom.  My mother was horrified and begged him to let her recover it so it would match all the floral fabrics she had carefully selected with our interior designer.  He ultimately convinced her no one would see it tucked away in their room.  Sometime later, he fell ill with cancer, and every family member or friend that came to visit him sat in the old chair.  He passed away during my junior year of college.

I like sitting in the chair because it reminds me not to take interior decorating too seriously.  At the end of the day, people aspire to have a comfortable place to sit down and talk or read, and enjoy life.  I did, however, recover the chair in a pretty Decorators Walk fabric…