THE DEACONS BENCH

Finding Its Good Home

This beautiful deacons bench dates to the 1960s and measures an impressive eight feet in length. Its painted decoration was created using Pennsylvania Dutch inspired stencil patterns. Remarkably, the original paper patterns used for the decoration were also preserved by its owner.

The bench was one of the most admired pieces in an estate sale I was conducting. People loved it until they discovered just how large it was. Eight feet of bench requires a very particular home.

For my client, however, the final selling price was not what mattered most.

She was preparing to leave her home and move into assisted living. The bench had been her pride and joy, and she gave me one simple request.

She wanted it to find a good home where it would be appreciated.

The sale ended without a winning bidder. By that time, my client had left New Hampshire with her son for Colorado. The bench remained behind, along with the responsibility she had entrusted to me.

Several weeks later, I received a telephone call.

A woman had been following the bench during the sale and noticed that it had not sold. She was interested, but she did not want it for her own home.

She wanted it for her church in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

That changed everything.

Later, I received a photograph showing the bench in its new home.

There it stood outside the rectory office, beneath a bulletin board, as if the empty space it filled had been waiting for it all along.

Pinned to the board above the bench was a prayer.

My client’s beloved bench had found its good home.

Sometimes the value of an object is not measured by the highest bid.

Sometimes its greatest value is found in where it belongs