Hoosier

When Gram fell back in August, they said it would be several months of rehab for her. Maybe by Thanksgiving she'll be home, they told us. Well, she came home last Wednesday! That old lady is tough, let me tell you. I'm glad to come from her.

She is moving into a room in my aunt's house, I'm not sure if it's temporary or permanent at this point, but her belongings have been mostly moved out of her home. Her bedroom set is in her new room, and the living room and kitchen has been cleared. The two guest rooms are intact, from what I can tell.

This hoosier has been in her kitchen since...well, since she left Oakland? I can't remember if it was in her house in Oakland? It wasn't white, if it was. It's been painted twice since I've known it, which is...30 years? I'm pretty sure it's been with her longer than that. Anyway, she insisted that I have this.

At the time that my aunt started telling me it was now mine, I was completely perplexed. Really? Because, I don't know, I'm more the kind of guy who is always trying to get rid of things, not add more things in.

But Gram insisted that it go with me. That she wanted me to have it. Did she think I had always wanted it? There's only one thing of my grandmother's that I've ever wanted, and it is the bowl that sat on her kitchen table, full of spoons. That bowl had been on her table forever and it was always full of fresh spoons that visitors (and there were always plenty of visitors!) would use to add cream and sugar to their coffee or tea. That bowl of spoons says just about everything you need to know about my Grandma, and someday I'll want it.

But this big piece of furniture? Well, okaaaaayyyyy, if she says it's mine, I'll take it. So here it is now, in my teeny-tiny eating area. Which already barely fit the blue cupboard and the china cabinet.
(Pardon the mess, by the way, but I was near manic in my starting-stopping-starting projects this weekend, after a long drought of only WORK.)




Technically speaking, neither the blue cupboard nor the china cabinet can go anywhere. The blue cupboard...well, I'd bet my mom would take it in a heartbeat, actually. It's made of reclaimed barn wood, and I've had it 20 years by now. But it's not going anywhere. And the cabinet was a gift from my betrothed on the eve before our wedding, a cabinet for the many beautiful presents we'd been getting to start our married life together.



So here we sit. Hemmed in on three sides by cabinets! I'm open to suggestions...what do I do with this new hoosier? Can I just add, also, that she was right? This hoosier does belong with me. It suits me quite fine, and I can picture it full of flour and sugars and glass jars of legumes. But I need help, with the placement and styling. What are your thoughts? I can change it and fill it and move anything, I'm just sort of...needing help.