Nearly older than me....!!!!

I have a story to tell 

of an auction

in a large a drafty shed

full of electrical gear,

office furniture.

tools,

gardening machines.

I don't know what we were doing there

I was standing next to 

a woman 

who must have been ninety if she was a day

thin as a whip,

straight as a ruler,

immaculately dressed,

not a hair out of place.

the lot we were watching was a desk

not unlike this one from google

'that was my desk'

she said

'the war was over he'd come home.....'

"do we have 20....yes.25...

do we have 30?"

'That's more than he paid...it was a long time ago'

the desk went for $35.

the Auctioneer moved on to the next lot

some chairs

some wastepaper baskets (metal)

The woman looked at me for the first time

'are you bidding?' she asked

'I don't think there's anything here for me'

I replied

'I remember when that filing cabinet arrived

He had it built just for me, you know,

it was so smart.'

I looked for a metal filing cabinet, nowhere.

'It matched the desk, they forgot to put a stop bar at the back

 so he made them come back then

 but they put it on the front instead'

I had just found the filing cabinet she was talking about

You know dear, it was 
quite good at the front,

it meant I had time to stop them before they could get the

files out....they made such a mess of those files

if I didn't supervise.'

That sale was 10 years ago

 and that filing cabinet has sat on my back verandah

all that time!

How could I not have bid on it?

such history,

such sadness
that lady had worked for
both Father and Son
from the age of 22
to 77

but there was no room in my house

I started to paint it

didn't finish.

it has held tins of paint

dog leads,

table legs,

tiles, old books etc, etc, etc!

Then I found the blog world

and was amazed at what

people were doing

the energy,

the style,

the beauty.

still it sat there

until a fortnight ago

when I needed to 

not think about food or other things

and so I painted

with Maggie sticking her nose in the roller tray

2 undercoats,

2 topcoats

1 litre of paint

and 3 small rollers later

excuse the paint tins behind

at 8 feet long this is

 just right size for magazines, cook books and

books on decorating!

 now it needs a new home

 and thanks to 'me bloggy mates'

who made me get up and do it, it will probably find one

thank you all

I am linking this to metamorphosis Monday

between naps on the porch.

Goodnight