When my mother remarried over twenty years ago Harper Brent, my step-father, retired, sold his house in New Jersey, and moved to Virginia to our family home. Among the things he brought with him was a heavy iron gate he and Jean, his first wife, used for access to their backyard. Its "french" design must have reminded him of her. He found no use for it and it remained stored until recently in an outbuilding, our old chicken house.Now that mother and Harper have both passed away my sister and I have responsibility for their stuff, including iron gates. We tried to give it away to Harper's sister or one of her daughters. No takers. I suggested my sister take it. She just gave me that familiar look as if I was out-of-my-mind and declined.
With our new backyard needing a fence and fences needing gates, yesterday I gave it a new home.
If there is a heaven they surely have internet by now, high-speed I am sure. So just in case: johnharperbrent1919@heaven.org. We finally put that gate to use. I hope you and Jean don't mind where it ended up. We will brush off the rust and paint it soon. Promise.
3 comments:
Harper would indeed be happy to see his gate being used once again after all these years. It will look better when painted.
Your questioning sister
Thank you for giving the gate a home and providing some history to folks like me, who are generally in the dark about things. It is certainly significant, knowing what I do now.
Your unquestioning nephew, who also happens to be the son of your questioning sister. Silly sister.
So who's "the brent"?
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