The Dresser

My kitchen dresser in the early 1960's seen on the left.

Photo taken at Barry's birthday.

My grandfather gave me my kitchen dresser when I was eight. It had sat in Nan’s shed for as long as I could remember, long ago having passed from a good piece of furniture in the dining room at Palmerston St with the linen kept in the drawer on the right to a handy cupboard for storing paint and tools. I have no doubt that when I said “I want this” I wasn’t expressing a real desire to own this cupboard as much as a desire to claim something no one else seemed to want. As the years passed Pa would occasionally ask if I still wanted the cupboard and my answer never changed. When he found the original stained glass for the doors he wrapped it carefully in bubble wrap and plastic until I came to claim it.

After he died and we moved Nan into full time care we cleaned out 40 years of history and my cupboard finally came out of the shed. Dave Sing, who built Ray’s Nan’s sewing cabinet, came out of semi retirement to restore my dresser. It took him 12 months and a triple bypass to turn a cupboard that had a ring of dried black paint that stood two inches tall on the interior shelf into what is undeniably my favourite piece of furniture.