The Furniture That Made Me Cry

“Is it leather?” Stef repeated to the salesperson.

“Faux leather.”

Close enough.

This is a good story. This is a family story. This is about Stef living on the West Coast.

She had been sharing an apartment for the last year in “The Valley.’ Now she’s on her own in Hollywood!

For those of you who know the Los Angeles area you know much of Hollywood is not desirable. Stef seems to be in a nice part and under 10 minutes from work!

In Los Angeles having a ten minute commute is the equivalent of finding free all day parking in Manhattan… or Sasquatch!

With her few sticks of bedroom furniture she began to live in a barren space. TV watching in the living room was either done from the floor or… actually no or. It was just the floor!

Today she went furniture shopping. I guess I knew she was, but I’d forgotten until the email arrived with a photo. She bought a table and chairs and a few stools for the breakfast bar. Later she picked out a sofa.

“Is it leather?” Helaine asked on the cell.

“Is it leather?” Stef repeated to the salesperson.

“Faux leather.”

Close enough.

This is my child. I changed her diapers. I spread enough baby powder to look like a desert sandstorm. Now she’s bought furniture!

It made me cry.

It’s tough to think of her as a child now.

11 thoughts on “The Furniture That Made Me Cry”

  1. In the early 1970s, my mom rented an apartment for $100 a month. It was the street right before Hollywood Blvd. One weeks pay paid the rent.

  2. You and Helaine have done an excellent job raising a fantastic young lady. Be proud, enjoy, and start saving tissues for the wedding that’s somewhere in the future!

  3. We helped our daughter furnish her apartment(s) from time to time as we could. It made me feel good and it made me feel even better when she bought new furniture from IKEA on her own. She’s back home with some of that furniture squeezed into a small bedroom. I am lucky to have her with me and when she leaves there will be a sense of relief with I am sure what will be sadness. Call us lucky when our children succeed on their own and luckier still when they say: “would it be okay if I move back for a while?” That’s when you know for sure that blood truly is thicker than water.

  4. Jana Said:
    “and start saving tissues for the wedding that’s somewhere in the future!”

    I would add…
    And grandkids….Lots of grandkids. (Hate me now?)

  5. She has great taste in furniture! The sofa looks comfy even though it’s faux leather.

    Married? Don’t worry, Geoff. Young, independent and intelligent women, such as your daughter, do not get married at her age anymore!! lol (They’re too smart for that!!)

  6. Gosh, I know the feeling! My daughter has been living in Albuquerque for several years, now, and just turned 30! What? How did that happen?! Sigh, when they’re independent, it means they are healthy, and that we’ve done a good job…but sometimes I wish I hadn’t done quite so good a job with raising her, so she’ll need me a little bit more.
    …AND, we need to have some kind of pneumatic tube or molecule rearranger, so we can see the ‘kids’, more often!

  7. Roots and wings. I got that from a guest speaker when my children were in middle school. Rick Lavoie did a whole presentation on how we give our children roots and then wings with which to fly out on their own.

    It amazes me how quickly they grow and how wonderfully intelligent they are. Your daughter being on her own is a testimony to how well you’ve raised her. You’ve given her the tools she needs to be an independent person and of that you must be so very proud.

    Seems to me there’s an awful lot of pride going around in the Fox home these days. Enjoy your visit.

  8. When your daughter was young, you, she, and your wife came to the old Olive Garden in Hamden often. My daughter was a hostess there then. She told me how friendly and pleasant you were to her. She had a daughter about the same age as yours, and now both yours and hers are grown up. Hers, (my granddaughter Jennifer,) is almost 23. (Gulp!!!!) They tend to do that to us, don’t they? Grow up, I mean. And cause us to “gulp” when we realize it.

  9. So, now seems as good a time as any–I have wanted to contact you and Helaine for MANY years (how old is Stef??) but wasn’t sure if you would remember me. However,I ran into a mutual aquaintance- Pam- who said I should. It does not seem that so much time could possibly have passed since you guys were sitting, huffing and puffing in my Lamaze class as I TRIED to teach you everything I could. It was a fun group,and,since then,every time I’ve heard you mention Stef I’ve thought of you guys. So, hello to you and Helaine! And job well done. Stef seems to be an outstanding young lady. Kim

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