Sofa King Gone

When I moved out for the last time in my early twenties, I took my bedroom furniture which included my twin bed that I'd had through my childhood. But one day a metal spring broke and popped through the mattress. When I told my dad about it, he said I could no longer sleep on that mattress and was afraid I'd get stabbed by another rogue spring so my parents offered to help me purchase a new bed.

Being immensely practical and falling for the girlhood fairytale of meeting a boy, getting married and having kids in my early twenties, I opted for a futon sofa bed. I thought that boys always had good beds and so when I met that dream boy, my futon could be used as a sofa. However, the fairytale didn't quite happen that way and one day around the age of 26 or 27, I was with my mom at an estate auction and saw a lovely 1930's carved, wood-inlaid bedroom suite available for bidding. We won the auction and my parents looked after delivering the new furniture and a new double mattress to me. Since I only had a love seat in my living room, I used that futon as a sofa and that continued for way too many years.

Recently, the sofa bed was in our living room and during the week, JP used it to sort all his office papers and on the weekends the kid would sleep on it. But this weekend, we were given the opportunity to receive some free home exercise equipment. JP rented a cargo van and we picked up these pieces and decided that while we had the van, we'd donate the futon to the Salvation Army to free up space we so desperately need in our house.

And so ends an era. I am now officially an adult. As far as I know, my friends and family had all ditched their futons before they turned 30. (I've always said I was a late bloomer.) And, being a sentimentalist, as soon as we started to drive away from the Salvation Army I felt a bit sad that I had to say goodbye to a piece of furniture that has been at 2 apartments, 1 basement suite and 2 houses with me. Maybe I'll go visit it this week, or maybe I should just never think of it again - we all have to grow up and move on at some point don't we? Don't we?