My uncle’s red recliner had a front-row seat to his life with Parkinson’s
It started out as a place for him to relax, but increasingly became his home base
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Uncle Brandon’s red recliner matched absolutely nothing in the living room.
Yet somehow, it was the star player on a winning team, or maybe the lead singer of a popular group. It stood out, and everyone noticed.
His friends joked that the ratty-looking chair threw off an otherwise rustic, traditional room. Family members swore it was older than the house itself. But Brandon wasn’t hearing any of it. That was his chair.
As kids, we’d occasionally plop down in it — but the minute Uncle Brandon walked into the room, one look told us everything we needed to know. Get. Up.
Home base
The chair was his place to watch the Dallas Cowboys and fishing and golf shows that we found painfully boring. It was where he made his sad attempts at playing Sega Genesis and PlayStation, providing considerably more entertainment to us than whatever game he was trying to play. It was where he enjoyed a snack or an adult beverage and somehow went from talking to us one minute to sound asleep the next.
It was also where Uncle Brandon held court. Phone conversations happened there. Serious family discussions happened there. If he’d made a decision or needed an update, chances were good we’d hear about it while he sat in that red chair.
The remote stayed nearby. His newspaper and medication eventually occupied an eating stool beside him. His cup usually sat on the floor because the chair was far too old-school to offer anything as luxurious as a cup holder.
As Uncle Brandon’s Parkinson’s disease progressed, however, I watched the chair’s role in his life change.
What had once been a place for an active man to relax after a long day increasingly became his home base. He still moved around the house as much as he could, but getting out of the chair took more time. I’d sometimes instinctively reach to help, only to discover that Uncle Brandon intended to wriggle himself out of that recliner on his own, thank you very much. The good news was that it never let him down.
Eventually, we began bringing more things to him there. One Christmas, I bought him a foot spa. He initially snarked at the idea, but eventually those feet made their way into the warm, motorized bubbles. I watched a man who could be notoriously resistant to our suggestions discover that perhaps his niece hadn’t completely lost her mind.
Even some of his physical therapy followed him to the chair. His therapist had taught him seated stretches, and now and then we’d catch him practicing. Naturally, we ruined the seriousness of the occasion by telling him he looked like Jackie Chan.
He was not amused. Well, maybe a little.
Through all those changes, though, the red recliner never became something I associated only with Parkinson’s. It was still where Uncle Brandon watched television, talked, laughed, napped, gave opinions nobody had necessarily requested, and remained unmistakably himself.
That chair had known him before Parkinson’s changed so much of his daily life. It stayed with him as his body required more rest, more time, and more help.
After Uncle Brandon made his transition from this Earth, I remember feeling something that sounds strange even now. I felt like the chair missed him. For decades, his personality had filled that ratty red recliner almost as much as his body had.
And without him sitting there, it was finally just a chair.
Note: Parkinson’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Parkinson’s News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Parkinson’s disease.
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