I’m still going through stuff, deciding what to sell, give away or throw out. I’ve a couple of items I tried to sell but no one was interested. Now I’m trying to decide what to do with two statues of a naked man and woman locked in an embrace.
The first one was a wedding present from a woman who worked at the same newspaper I did when Janet and I married. It was a plaster reproduction of a Rodin sculpture. He did many variations on The Kiss. The woman had stained it a dark brown which made it look like it had been carved out of wood. For forty-four years the figurine sat in our bedroom and gave Janet and me plenty of giggles.
When our daughter married her first husband, the wedding was in the Bahamas. While we wandered through an open-air market Janet and I found an actual wood-carved figurine of a naked man and woman. This was not a Rodin look-alike but a Bahamian interpretation of a couple in love. The man was noticeably too skinny while the woman had an ample bosom and behind. We thought since our wedding present had brought us so much luck and pleasure we decided to buy this one for our daughter and her new husband.
Our daughter unwrapped it and said, “Oh great. My parents just gave us a pornographic statue.”
Perhaps providentially, that marriage ended in divorce. However, she and her new husband discreetly returned the figurine to us shortly after their wedding. Honestly, Janet and I were stumped over why they didn’t like the statue. I mean, it was made of real wood, like teak or something. Since then, the Bahamian couple joined the Rodin knockoff in our bedroom where we had twice the giggles and twice the fun.
Even though our house is overrun with stuff that needs to go, the two statues are staying. I think that’s what Janet would have wanted. I need the memories more than the couple of bucks I might get for them.
After I’ve passed on, my daughter can decide what to do with them.