Goodbye, Old Friend

This has been a sad day in the Duncan Household.

About seven and half years ago our dear friend, Floral Couch, came to live with us. Well, with me, actually. She arrived on my doorstep while I was living in our first apartment about six months before Phillip and I tied the knot.

I'll never forget the day she arrived. I had come home on my lunch break to open wide the door of our third floor apartment for the delivery men who would be bringing her to me from the furniture warehouse in Birmingham where we had carefully selected her size, shape and fabric.

You can imagine my surprise when only one guy showed up and I had to help carry this bunglesome & extremely heavy piece up three flights of stairs. I came away from the ordeal with a cut wrist, a broken shoe and a strained back - and I consider myself to be pretty darn strong for someone of the female persuasion. It could have been worse, too, had a nice neighbor not heard all the commotion and come outside to help. But anyway...Once I shooed the delivery guy out the door, I tore into the plastic wrap only to discover that (gasp) THIS WAS NOT THE FLORAL COUCH I ORDERED.

I know I tend to be verbose, so I'll cut to the chase. Several phone calls (to the very difficult salesman in Birmingham) later we came to an understanding that this was indeed the frame of our Floral Couch, only covered with a very different Floral than we had chosen. Seeing as how I had no furniture to my name and a wedding close on the horizon, we opted not to send her back and wait three more months for the couch to be upholstered in the correct Floral and delivered. We were also given the option of donating her to charity, mailing the receipt to the Birmingham warehouse and waiting for another couch. We instead chose option C - Receiving a full refund for all the trouble and welcoming Wrong Floral Couch into our family. (Option C was our idea.)

Over the years, she has become a part of the landscape around here. She has been a good friend, providing comfortable seating to many of those we love. As of late, however, she just wasn't fitting in as well anymore and she unfortunately emitted the lingering odor of George & Weezie (our former Boston Terriers).

The Salvation Army came today to carry her off to another happy home. May she serve her next family as well as she served us.

Godspeed, Floral Couch!