The Best $20 I Ever Spent

We were in the market for new seating for our family room a few years ago.

We had some pretty specific specifications in mind. We wanted a couch or sectional that could comfortably seat four people who are watching a television show. It needed to be firm but not too hard. Wide enough but still have ample room to open doors on either side.

Tall enough so that my head has something to rest on when I’m relaxing in front of a movie for a couple of hours. Not so “value priced” that it flattens out in two years, but not so expensive that we had to dip into the girls’ college fund to pay for it.

We looked at every furniture store in the county, it seemed, and finally bought the longest couch I’ve ever seen from Nebraska Furniture Mart.

My point is, good seating is important at our house—enough to spend considerable time and money getting something we really wanted.

Good seating was also important—I’d go so far as to say life-saving—for my mom after she went to live at the nursing home. Her first room in the rehab hall, where she was recovering from severe injuries suffered in a fall at home, was functional but not very homey.

At some point, after she finished rehab and was waiting for a room to open up in long-term care, it occurred to me that she hadn’t been able to sit next to my dad on a couch since before her accident.

For several months, when my dad came to visit, she would sit in her wheelchair while he sat in some kind of office-looking armchair next to her. When I put myself in her shoes, I couldn’t imagine going that long without the physical closeness of the man I’d been married to for more than 59 years.

I decided something needed to be done about this, so I started scouring Craigslist for a gently used loveseat that would fit along the wall by the door in her room. It didn’t have to be fancy, just clean and comfortable.

I found just what I was looking for at a garage sale in our former neighborhood. I plunked down $20 and came away with a couch that may have done more to facilitate the filling of my mom’s love tank over the next year and half than anything else.

We brought the loveseat to the nursing home and set it up in her room, and from that day forward, my mom and dad lounged there together every day after lunch. Snuggled up close, they’d watch When Calls the Heart DVDs or just sit quietly, with either one or both of them often falling asleep.

When I showed up after lunch, this is how I’d find them, and it warmed my heart every time.

There’s something about physical closeness, arm to arm or leg thrown over leg, that nurtures a person’s soul. I don’t believe it was a one-way street with my parents either; although my dad didn’t come across as very sentimental, there had to have been something deep inside of him that needed this too.

As I look back on it now, I’m amazed at the difference a garage-sale loveseat made for my mom—and for all the loved ones who visited her. I think it was the most therapeutic $20 I’ve ever spent.

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Have you ever spent a relatively small amount on something that made a huge difference—for yourself or someone else? If so, please share your story in the comments.

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Recharge Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.