My grandma’s chair

The restoration of a familiar armchair to its former glory reminds Katy Collier of the security of her grandmother’s love

“One of my earliest memories is of the chair. Now I’m older, it doesn’t seem that big but I remember sitting in it with my grandmother and she was teaching me how to knit and to tie laces. I call it Grandma’s Chair.

I was close to my grandparents – they only lived down the road from where I lived with my mum in Worsley in Greater Manchester – and they were like parents. My mum is a bit like Eddie out of Absolutely Fabulous.

My grandma was the most loving person I’ve ever known. It was really sad when she developed Alzheimer’s; you don’t lose the person per se but their personality. She’d sometimes say, “Bewitched, bewildered and bothered,” and you could see she didn’t really know what was going on. I’d lost her before she died really so keeping things like the chair helped remind me of who she was.

I’d had the chair for a while and thought that it looked a bit sad. I wanted to get it back to looking like it should, so I had it reupholstered but I didn’t want to change it too much. I felt like if I changed it to a different colour it would tarnish the memories of Grandma in some way. Orange isn’t what I would have chosen, but I felt like it had to stay.

I’ve since moved the chair to the dining room and it’s now a place of solitude. When I’m not on my own with the kids I’ll often take the baby and feed him in there to get away from the hustle and bustle.

Every time I see the chair, it makes me smile and sitting in it brings this warmth. It means a lot and I feel really grateful that I had the opportunity to have something of my grandma’s and the memories that go with it. It sounds a bit cheesy but, seeing it or sitting in it, I feel her love more than I’ve ever been loved by anyone.”

“I felt if I changed its colour it would tarnish my memories in some way”