Goodbye Corner Chair

Years ago when Noah was about 2, his physical and occupational therapists decided he needed a corner chair. I’d never heard of a corner chair before but his therapists explained that it would give him maximum support while sitting and that it would also help him with head control and the goal was that through sitting in the corner chair, eventually he’d be able to sit independently without the corner chair.

They brought me a medical equipment catalog to show me pictures of corner chairs. This was our very first experience with ordering medical equipment and I remember feeling so emotionally unprepared. I got teary eyed as I looked at the corner chairs. They were so sterile and clinical looking. The therapist consoled me by saying we could paint it, decorate it, and make it cheerier and less clinical.

When it arrived, there were a few more tears as it looked just as bad in person as it did in that catalog. Some may think this is vain or something silly to shed a couple of tears over but when you are thinking of your child’s life and the things you’ll buy for him turn you are not expecting to pick out things from a medical catalog and you realize that your child's life is turning out to be completely different than you imagined then sometimes you just have to take a minute and acknowledge that, grieve it, and then move forward.

My Mom and I painted the corner chair a bright royal blue. Then my Mom painted different Sesame Street characters in automobiles on the tray (which matched the wall paper border in Noah’s room at the time). It turned out really cute.

Recently, J picked up some of Noah’s old medical equipment that he had outgrown that was stored at my parents’ house. We gave them to the physical therapy department at Noah’s school so that other children can benefit from them. That corner chair was one of the things we gave to them and I found myself a little sad to say goodbye to it. Ironic isn't it? Something I loathed at first turned into a sweet memory for me.

But I know another special boy or girl will use that corner chair and smile at Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Elmo, and Cookie.

I apologize for the terrible cell phone pic but check out the amazing job my Mom did on the tray!