Sometime on November 30, 1977, my older sister, Stacia Cressa was born into this world in North Carolina to loving parents who loved giving their children unique names. On June 23, 1990, at the age of twelve, that same life was reunited with her Heavenly Father for eternity after battling Leukemia and Melanoma cancers.
I was taken aback this morning with the realization that my sister would have been 30-today.
30! Wow.
If I think about it a bit, she probably would’ve been married. Probably would’ve had children. Our families would’ve probably celebrated her birthday together over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Who knows what would have been…
What’s also continuing through my mind today is that Stacia is still ‘older’ than me – even in my brain. She’s been gone from us for 17-years and somehow she’s still ‘looks’ older, ‘talks’ older, and ‘acts’ older than me. When I think about her I can’t help but envision her as my continuously ‘older’ sister.
I thank God for the memories of my sister – and for the faith that she had as a young pre-teen that assured her family and friends that she would one day be reunited with them (us) if we, too, put our trust in the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ!
Tonight I started a project I have been putting off for quite a while now.
Jess’ grandparents gave her a piece of ‘antique’ furniture – a hutch to store her teapots in eventually. The piece has a lot of character and needs a lot of work to “make the cut” to be brought indoors.
Tonight I performed steps 1-3.
Step 1. Actually look the piece over and realize how big a job I’m taking on.
Step 2. Take off all the hardware – in this case, two drawer handles, four hinges, a miniature door knob, and an ancient hook-lock and eyelet.
Step 3. Begin disassembly.
Step 3 came only after realizing that to ‘make the cut’, this piece of furniture is going to have to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. There are MANY loose pieces, some gaps, a lot of finish-work, and even some reconstruction that will have to take place to make this hutch presentable in our home!
This will be a FUN project for me this Winter! Progress will be published as it happens – stay tuned!
The front of the hutch after I’d already removed the two doors from their hinges.
The back of the hutch – each of these 1×4 tongue-and-groove-style backboards is in need of some TLC.
