A to Z April Challenge: T is for Table

This is a continuation of LAST APRIL’s challenge about HEIRLOOMS. When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!)

is for Table, but not just any table. This one was built by my father-in-law, Ervin Mathias. The wood came from trees growing on the mountain on the family farm in Timberville, Virginia. An ice storm in the late 1970s or early 80s broke branches and damaged trees. Ervin cut down poplars, oaks, cedars, walnut trees, and maples. He took them to a sawmill to have the sawyers do whatever it is they do. Then he let the wood dry in an old chicken house.

From the various woods he made Barry and his brothers and sisters each a coffee table with a checkerboard center. No two tables are the same.

I love the story of this table, but from the moment we received it, I have feared that a child would fall into it. Those corners are sharp. Heck, all the edges are sharp. It’s the table of death. But it will always have a proud spot in our family room.

Wendy

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