Four Chairs Was Enough

Thomas Hemminger

October 1, 2023

When we bought our kitchen table

we only had room for four chairs around it. 

We had to stash the other two around the house,

one beside the piano bench, 

and one in another corner. 

“Do you think four chairs will be enough?”

We asked each other a few times, 

evincing our unspoken hope for more babies

in the near future. 

We had our little man, 

sitting at the table with his 

dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, 

and his four-year-old stories of derring-do.

Over the years, we watched the fourth chair

from time to time, 

looking at the pile of school books, 

Bibles, papers, crayons, or toys in its lap.

But, as it turned out, 

four chairs was just enough.

Four chairs was just enough to hold 

the memories, the triumphs, 

the losses, and the lifetimes

of all three of us. 

That extra chair became the place

to save tomorrow’s cares 

for when we needed to face them. 

We came to accept it, to need it even, 

not for what the chair had been missing, 

but for everything it caught. 

Thomas Hemminger is an elementary music teacher living in Dallas, Texas. His personal hero is Mr. Fred Rogers, the creator of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It was through America’s favorite “neighbor” that Thomas learned of the importance of loving others, and of giving them their own space and grace to grow.