Charlie's Window

We've moved to our new place and now have the internet, wahoo!! After saying our sad goodbyes to such a good home, I thought it fitting to pay tribute to our little friend Charlie. I will tell you about him...
He was named, sadly, after his death. I thought it only fitting to name him after that most wonderful creature who gave us all a warm, fuzzy spot in our hearts for spiders: Charlotte, of Charlotte's Webb. (If any of you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it. I loved Julia Roberts as the voice of Charlotte and Dakota Fanning is just the cutest Fern ever. Also, there are so many cool special features and the neatest song ~ Ordinary Miracle by Sarah McLachlin on the soundtrack.)
Okay, back to my story about Charlie. I will warn you, it is a sad tale and I am only telling people for two reasons: to purge my guilt and to remember a dear little friend.

Charlie first showed up in our windowsill one cold day in the spring. He was just a little tyke then, and Jeff decided to spare his life. This is a pretty huge deal coming from someone who despises spiders. I cannot emphasize enough how much he dislikes them. I have never met someone who is so quick to smash and stomp out the hideous things. And up until this point I was fine with all of his smashing and stomping. (Our old apartment was just that: old, and it had many little quirks, one of them including a LOT of spiders.) Needless to say, I was a little shocked when Jeff let the little guy live. When I asked why Jeff let him live he just shrugged and said "I really don't know." And thus it began: our friendship with the then no-named spider. Jeff and I both agreed that the minute he ventured into the house from his windowsill- he was toast. But he never did. He stuck to his window and spun beautiful little webs across the sill. He was very patient with me and whenever I would 'visit' and blow a little on his web (if it was getting too big and spilling over into the house) he would sit quietly there until I let him be and then work his magic overnight again.
Quite inspiring.
As the months turned warmer, the window would stay open longer in the day and I would worry a little that Charlie would take a trip inside. (The couch sat right under his sill) But again, he never did. He minded his own business, stayed put, spun webs and grew bigger. Pretty soon he was a full grown spider and pretty cool to watch. We grew quite fond of Charlie and every so often I would ask Jeff if he was going to get rid of him since he was getting so big. Jeff would just do his same shoulder shrug and say "I don't know." Meanwhile, many other spiders met their demise while in the confines of our home! (I will admit that I always had Jeff do the dirty deed, I just couldn't stomach it!)
Well, the inevitable day came when when we had a visitor coming over. We had had many visitors throughout Charlie's time in the window. Why this visitor was different~ to this day I honestly have no idea. But after thinking multiple times over that someone, sometime, was going to turn their head when sitting on the couch and freak out over this spider in the corner, I figured it was time we 'moved' him. I casually said to Jeff, "I think it's time we get rid of the spider." I didn't need to say which spider, by then we both knew who we were talking about when it came to THE spider. So Jeff got rid of him. The minute it was done ( I don't think I need to explain IT) I was upset. Why did we do that?! He wasn't harming anyone. He just sat in his corner! No more webs would be spun there, no more morning visits as I opened the window. I will be utterly honest here and tell you, yes, I cried over a spider. To this day I can still get a tear in my eye when I think of him.
When recounting my tale of woe to my sister, Chelsea, she laughed at me and said, "Why didn't you just have Jeff catch him and put him outside?" I was dumbfounded. It might sound silly to you all, but seriously, that is just NOT what we did with spiders in our home, so the thought never even occurred to me. Not once. There was another solution to 'getting rid' of Charlie, and we never thought of it. So not only did I already feel very guilty for getting rid of him, NOW I felt guilty that I didn't think of just relocating him.
You may be thinking by this point, he was JUST a spider for crying out loud, get over it! And so that is what I am attempting to do in this little retelling. I named our little windowsill friend and have now told his tale, so although he is very gone, you and I will both remember this story about a spider and a window. And maybe next time you are about to stomp out the life of a particularly nasty looking spider, you will remember Charlie and you will figure out a way to relocate him. That is what Charlie's life will have meant ~ and that is what he will have given to other spiders.