Question Of The Day By My Daughter

Recently my daughter started something interesting on Facebook. She asks a fairly generic question most days. I'm always interested to see what her FB friends will have for answers. One day she asked what their favorite kitchen utensil was. I answered, "My husband!" I'm not sure if she wants humor, honesty, or something entirely interesting and not general. Well, most folks that know me, know that I have a tendency to inflect my humor into things like this.
Today's question was, "What was the greatest life lesson given to you by a family member and who." I immediately knew exactly what the lesson was and who.
When I first started taking care of Marie her mobile home

living room had a hospital bed, sofa, chair, dining room table and chairs. The television faced her chair. The sofa faced the hospital bed. Are you getting the picture? No where for me to sit and watch television! No where for me to be a companion to Marie. There has always been a wooden rocking chair that sat to one side of her electric organ. It had an afghan that she had crocheted on it. No one ever sat on it. I never gave it a thought.
I think that it was on the third day of not having anywhere to sit that I dragged the rocking chair over by her and sat down so we could watch television together. Oh, my gosh, all kinds of screaming and carrying on started happening!
Exact quotes were, "No, no, no! That's my grandfather's chair. No one can sit in that chair!"
That's when I knew that my rocking chair and footstool from the camper were coming to live at Marie's house. I would have some place to sit. Of course, I immediately put the rocking chair in the corner where no one could sit on it and informed my husband of the move.

Marie Rose Lizotte

One day when Marie was in bed I took that chair out and found a manufacturing sticker on the bottom of it. Well, I called the company. The chair was not her grandfather's chair. It may have been her father's or her husband's. The company had not been established in her grandfather's time frame. So the lesson that I learned was from my dear almost 103 year old mother-in-law. The lesson was never, ever sit on a chair that is empty unless someone invites you to have a seat that lives in that home.
Mercy on us that was a very "loud" lesson. My daughter didn't ask about a "Loud Lesson" (smiles)