SECONDHAND STORE’S ODD CONVERSATION PIECE FINDS ITS PERFECT HOME
Sentimental strangers’ trip unites quirky tattoo and matching fish chair
Thea Lenna went to her local secondhand store in Baltimore searching for light fixtures earlier this month when she happened upon a pastel-painted fish chair with a price tag of $740.
“I had never seen anything like it before,” said Lenna, 34, who found the chair on Sept. 6.
She snapped a photo of the curious chair and posted it on a popular Facebook group, aptly called “Weird Secondhand Finds That Just Need To Be Shared.”
Apart from showcasing the strange seat to a group of thriftstore enthusiasts, “I really didn’t think much of it,” Lenna said.
But when Emily DelFavero, one of the 2 million members in the Facebook group, scrolled past the post, she paused in shock.
“I had that exact chair tattooed on my leg two years ago,” said DelFavero, 29, of Syracuse, N.Y.
DelFavero posted a photo of her tattoo in the group, adding that it is emblematic of her mother, who once collected pieces by MacKenzie-Childs — the designer of the chair.
The group went wild.
Her post was quickly f looded with comments asserting that the chair, which had been at the store for less than a month, was destined to belong to DelFavero.
“People were begging me to make a GoFundMe and said they wanted to donate,” said DelFavero, an auto mechanic. “I was thinking I would call the place and buy the chair myself; I wasn’t even looking for donations, but I realized within minutes that people really just wanted to be a part of this.”
Among those who pushed for a GoFundMe was Rosita Smith, 30.
“I started seeing people replying instantly saying Emily needs this chair,” Smith said. “No one deserves this chair as much as she does.”
The thrift store, Second Chance, agreed to lower the price from $740 to $600 when it heard the story.
“We took it off the f loor right away,” said Pete Theodore, the marketing manager of the store, which is a nonprofit workforce development program, employing people with criminal backgrounds and others who need a hand.
“We really are a second chance, both for products and people,” he said.
The GoFundMe, set up by DelFavero on Sept. 7, collected enough money to buy the chair in less than 24 hours. Then came the complicated part: transporting it from Baltimore to Syracuse — about 330 miles.
“I thought, why not make another Facebook group so that people can actually follow this story and see if we can get her the chair,” Smith said.
She created a group called “From Baltimore to Emily D.,” and since its inception Sept. 7, it has amassed nearly 2,500 devoted members from as far away as Hawaii, Europe and Australia —
all focused on a common goal.
Members began volunteering to drive the chair from Baltimore to Syracuse, and “a small group of us got together separately to figure out the mapping and logistics,” Smith said.
They decided the trip would have seven legs, each about an hour long, though some drove farther from home to the designated meeting spots. Drivers arranged pickup locations to pass along the chair, which measures about 22 inches wide and 41 inches high.
Once the map was made and the seven drivers were selected, the Facebook group buzzed with excitement for the moment when DelFavero would finally have the chair. The members collectively counted down through constant posts and shared photos of their own favorite chairs as they waited.
“Seeing this group of people from all over the world saying nothing but positive things, it just made
me forget about everything bad we’ve all been living through,” said Smith, who is based in Canada and has been separated from her husband by the border closure. She is pregnant and has two young children.
“Being able to do something for a complete stranger, while simultaneously touching the lives of so many other people and helping them with their mental health, has been overwhelming,” she said.
As the Facebook group grew, one member contacted the chair’s original designer, Victoria MacKenzie-Childs, who with husband Richard founded the company in 1983, though they are no longer involved in the business.
“I was touched to tears,” MacKenzie-Childs said. “I felt deeply grateful that the chair was a symbol of the story.”
Although DelFavero’s mother never owned the chair, their house in Auburn, N.Y., was filled with other MacKenzie-Childs pieces, including matching fish plates.
DelFavero recalls regularly visiting the MacKenzie-Childs studio in Aurora, N.Y., as a child with her mom and as a young adult. About four years ago, when she was visiting the studio, she first spotted a dollhouse
version of the fish chair and fell in love with it, deciding she eventually wanted it tattooed on her leg. She took a photograph of it.
“The chair really resonated with me. It reminded me of my mom and my childhood,” said DelFavero, who until this week had never seen the full-size fish chair in person.
“It reminded me of our dinner plates, the lemonade pitcher, the serving bowl.”
Two years ago, when she left Auburn for Syracuse, DelFavero said she thought it would be the perfect time to get the chair tattoo as a reminder of home.
“The tattoo is an embodiment of love and happy memories,” she said. “The chair embodies everything that I love.”
But the chair has taken on a new meaning for DelFavero, and for those who have become a part of the story.
“Everybody who is involved in this chair thing is invested for a different reason,” she said.
In fact, one member posted “what does this chair journey symbolize for you?” in the group, and responses poured in.
“A minute of hope for humans — a thread of untapped love for others — a sense of fun and adventure,” one member wrote.
Others contributed similar sentiments, including Jacqueline Sergent, 37, who drove the fourth leg of the journey.
“It’s such a weird, wholesome story at a time when everything is so bleak,” Sergent said.
Sergent said the pandemic-induced isolation has been mentally crippling for her, adding this experience has offered her a sense of connection that she, and many others in the group, longed for.
“We’re just a bunch of strangers on a mission to bring somebody joy,” she said.
On Sunday, she drove
almost two hours from Pottstown, Pa., to Hazelton, Pa., to get the chair, then from there another hour to Lackawanna County, Pa., to meet the fifth driver.
“It was literally like meeting friends I’ve known my entire life,” she said. “We shed a few tears.”
The chair arrived at its destination on Monday. Sarah Edwards, 36, handled the final leg of the trip.
“This is my new soul sister,” Edwards said over the phone, standing beside DelFavero and the fish chair.
“Pulling in here was one of the most exciting things I have ever done.”
Edwards drove from her home in Binghamton, N.Y., to DelFavero in Syracuse, and picked up custommade fish doughnuts that a local bakery had made for them, free.
“It’s the toughest year that any of us have ever had, and there is nothing but happiness in this story,” Edwards said. “It doesn’t matter who you are — you just can’t help but smile that this many people just wanted to make one person happy. And we did. On to the next mission.”
The 13-member logistics team — self-designated as the “Fellowship of the Fish Chair” — has scheduled monthly Zoom calls and is planning a get-together when pandemic conditions allow.
“When I look at the chair, I will think of every single one of these people,” DelFavero said.
Beyond finally having her very own freckled fish chair, DelFavero said, she’s most touched by how the experience has brought together thousands of strangers.
“The chair has always represented love,” she said. “But now it’s not just for me. It’s for all of us.”