Generosity

I have been blessed by some friends lately and I promised I would "pay it forward" because they were kind to me. Here's the story.

I meet a lot of people in my line of work. I have a huge network of friends and acquaintances that I have come to love and appreciate. One nice lady, SM, recently had a friend, J, move in with her. J is downsizing immensely. SM's daughter-in-law, RM, tells me "You should see the things that are going! Nice furniture, pillow top mattress and frame, all kinds of things."

You have heard me praise the new mattress we have, yep that is it. I said to RM, "I would be interested in the mattress and happy to pay for it." J wouldn't hear of it. I was invited over to check it out.

Now seriously. We have had our bed and frame for 10 years. It belonged to someone else before us. We are masters of hand me down furniture. But this bed frame was getting precarious. It just felt like it was on the verge of folding up on the spot. Add to it two kids who would sneak into our room and jump on it, and you have a potential disaster. I wanted that pillow top and new frame badly. J wanted to just give it to me, and refused to let me take my checkbook out. J made me promise to "pay it forward".

I was also offered two Queen Anne chairs that are also recliners, plus a beautiful side table. You can see the boys cuddling under a blanket on one of the new chairs. Yes, BH, is also practicing his phone calling on a dead cell phone we gave him. Also, they gave us a beautiful wood hall tree that J brought back from a trip to Vietnam years ago. It is hand made. Yes, yes, and yes. Again, we have hand me down furniture and this is hand me down too, but definitely nice.

So we have had the new mattress for awhile and like everyone said would happen, the back pain is going away. I sleep well. I love the new chairs, and the old ones are going. They had slipcovers on them with my desire to reupholster sometime before I die. The hall tree still needs to be assembled as well as our head board.

I am so appreciative you have no idea. What an amazing gift! We can't afford incredibly nice furniture. But I am definitely looking for a way to make good on my promise to J to pay it forward. I want to return the favor to someone else. I think I have done a little bit with my new neighbor, and I'll keep you posted on that.