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| This photo by me on a visit in June or July |
Here's what I consider a touching little tale. Sadly, the mother of one of my friends died last September and eventually her house was put up for sale - only a few months ago in fact. The family had moved in sometime in 1970, 48 years ago, and over the course of that time, my friend's siblings had grown up, married and moved out, their father had died, and only my friend's mother remained in the house until she passed away.
When they moved in back in 1970, there was a hall-stand left by the previous owner, who didn't have the space (or the need) for it in the flat they'd moved to - which had been my friend's family's, as it was an 'exchange' when the properties were still council-owned. (Incidentally, I've known my friend since 1965 when he lived in that flat, in the same street and just around the corner from the house in which I then lived.)
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| Estate agent's photo seen by the granddaughter |
Anyway, one of the daughters whose mother, as a child, had originally lived in the house from the early '60s up to 1970, learned that it was up for sale and, looking at the estate agent's website, saw the hall-stand that she remembered from when she visited her grandparents as a kid. She contacted the estate agent and asked them to enquire whether my friend's sister (who was the executor) would consider selling the hall-stand to her.
My friend's sister said that she could have it for nothing, and the hall-stand is now in the possession of the daughter of one of the children who had originally lived in the house before my friend's family moved in and 'inherited' it. The granddaughter being reunited with a familiar aspect of her childhood that reminds her of her now departed granny and grandfather is something I find quite heart-warming.
How about you?
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(There's always a chance my friend invented the whole story though, because he knows the sort of tale that I'm an absolute sucker for and would want to be true.)
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| This photo by me on a visit in June or July |
4 comments:
Lovely story. Glad your friend has been reunited with something that must bring back fond memories.
It wasn't my friend who was reunited with the hall-stand, DS - it was the granddaughter of the woman who had lived in his house before him. I freely admit that it's kind of hard to follow though, so I'll try and revise it to make it clearer if I can.
just as well i never wanted it, what a great story!
I think my friend would've preferred it to stay on in the house where it'd been for well over 50 years (before he moved in), but it's a young couple who bought the house so it's unlikely they'd have been into such old-fashioned furniture and would probably have discarded it. The only other option would be to donate it to a charity shop, so I'm glad it's gone to a close relative of the original family.
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