My mother-in-law, Lillian, loved to crochet afghans. She made them for new baby presents, new home presents, wedding presents, and for any and every other occasion. She made quilt-sized ones and lap-sized ones. She crocheted single-color ones, two-toned ones, and sometimes muti-colored ones to use up left-over yarn. She made them for my family and even for some of my friends. She loved making afghans for my home, and I had at least one in every room.
Wedding afghan for Avra and Michael
Baby afghan for my nephew, Max
Baby afghan for my nephew, Trenton
She even had her friend, Jenny, crochet an afghan for me!
When we first moved into our house and when the kids were small, my living room was always a mess. It was filled with the kids’ toys, and I didn’t mind if they made forts out of the couch cushions and afghans or jumped on them. However, when they got a little older, and when we remodeled the house and there were other spaces for them to play in, I decided I wanted a more formal living room. I wanted the room to stay clean and neat so that when people walked in, they would not immediately see a disastrous mess.
I learned of a furniture factory in Hamden, CT, that would sell to the public. They manufactured furniture for some of the big department stores in New York City. Because you were dealing directly with the factory, the price was very reasonable for custom-made furniture. Using my dimensions, they constructed an L-shaped couch and a matching chaise lounge chair. They convinced me to order a mostly white fabric which Stan was also in favor of.
The new furniture arrived in 1984, a week before Stan turned 40. Lillian wanted to make me an afghan for the new furniture. However, I did not want one in my new formal living room. I kept saying there would be no TV in there and no reason to have an afghan. I know she was disappointed, but I already had more than one afghan in every other room in the house and I was adamant.
Lillian passed away in 1991. Brad was then in high school and drove Lillian’s old car. I was working full-time but would get home around 3:45 p.m. One day I arrived home from work to an empty house and I noticed dish towels on the chaise lounge. I thought that was odd, so I picked them up to bring them back to the kitchen. To my horror, the fabric on the chaise lounge was torn and I could see red ink. It looked as though someone (Brad?) had tried really hard to rub the ink out, but in rubbing, the fabric shredded.
By 2023, the ink has faded but you can still see the damage.
Where was Brad? His car was not in the driveway, and this was before cell phones. Matt was at basketball practice, so I could not question him. I waited an hour thinking Brad would return soon. However, it was starting to get dark, and I was starting to get worried. I started calling his friends to see if he was with one of them. I finally located him at one of his friend’s homes. He was upset about the chair and afraid to come home. I had to convince him that he was much more important than any chair. He finally agreed to come home.
How did the red stain get on the chaise lounge? Brad’s friend Glenn stopped over and for some reason, they sat in the living room. Glenn had a red pen in his back pocket that leaked. He did not realize this until he stood up. Both boys panicked and tried hard to get the stain out, but their rubbing just made more of a mess.
The chaise lounge cushion could not be turned over as it was designed to fit exactly into its space. What was I going to do? My solution was to cover the mess with an afghan. Every time I walk past the chair now, I chuckle. In the end, Lillian got her way and I have an afghan in my living room!
