Antique Wardrobe

Back in October, we got a special gift.  It is one that has been part of my mom's family for years.  It is an old wardrobe that belonged to Louellen.   She was my mom's first cousin that lived next door to my Grandma Ruby in Millersberg as long as even my mom can remember.   She lived in an old house that has one bedroom downstairs and one bedroom upstairs.  Also upstairs is a lot of unfinished space we call the attic.  Despite the fact that Louellen's my mom's cousin, she was closer in age to my Grandam.  Her mom, Ruby's sister Grace, was about 20 years older than my grandma, making Louellen only 4 years younger than her.  When I was a kid, we usually spent more time at Louellen's than grandma's when we went to stay with grandma in Millersberg.  That's because Louellen has a gift for cooking and baking.  She is the one that taught me how to make banana cream pie, taught my Aunt Nancy to make dumplin's, and made the best German potato salad I've ever had.

Two weeks ago, Louellen passed away.  It was a very sad time for our family, but I am so thankful to have this special wardrobe to remind us of our Nu Nu and the role that she played in our lives. 

In Louellen's attic, for at least the past 55 years, has lived an old wardrobe. It is a dark wood, but is very simply finished. Louellen was having some work done to her house and needed to clean out the attic, and she was gracious enough to think of me and let me have the old wardrobe.  It was a little dirty, but in great shape considering its age.  A little elbow grease and wood oil did a lot to make the old wardrobe look like new.

As we brought the old wardrobe out of Louellen's attic a few months ago, it made me wonder what its story is.  Where did it come from?  How did it end up in an attic that required us to take out a window and slide the wardrobe down a ladder to get it out? 

While the exact age of the wardrobe is unknown, Louellen said that it was at least made before 1903.  She knows that because the wardrobe has hooks for hanging clothes instead of a bar; hangers were invented in 1903, so the wardrobe was presumably made before that. She also said that her family wasn't the original owner.  The wardrobe was part of a bedroom set that included two chairs and a bed.  The set was being thrown out by a family that lived in north St. Louis in 1937 on a street called Strodtman Place near the Bissell water tower.  Now the area is run down, but in 1937 it would have been a relatively upscale city neighborhood, especially for a family from the country. 

Before Louellen died, the wardrobe had been in her attic for many years.  Now, it stands in the second floor of our house in our master bedroom.  Billy added some shelves, suspending them with rope being carful not to make any permanent modifications to the wardrobe.  He even managed to get our TV on one of the shelves.  Now, the wardrobe is a functional, beautiful, and sentimental part of our home.  I guess you can say all of those things about Louellen too.  She was an instrumental part of our lives, and we will miss her dearly.