BY RICHARD MORGAN

Richard Morgan talks about these misplaced stair lights in this week’s column. (Submitted photo)

Sometimes late at night, I have to walk down our stairs. It’s dark, but I know there are 17 steps, so I usually count them. But sometimes if I’m half asleep, I lose count. Or forget to. So a few times I’ve missed the last step and have taken a slide. So far, I haven’t broken any bones, but I don’t want to take any more chances.

So I decided to put some lights on the steps. They’re battery powered, light sensitive, and motion sensitive. They only come on at night, when needed. They work great.

Except I made a mistake. I meant to put them on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th steps. But somehow, I wasn’t paying attention and put them on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th. I went to fix it, but the screw was stripped, so I just said, “oh well” and left them as is. They work just fine.

Yes, I know it looks odd. But it’s one of those things we’ll soon forget about. But honestly, there’s more to it.

I didn’t do it on purpose, and luckily my wife Jeanne doesn’t mind. But I also know that each time she looks at them, she’ll think of me putting them up, and the mistake I made. When I’m gone, she’ll (hopefully) still think the same thing, in maybe a different way. She’ll remember me putting them up, incorrectly, and it might (maybe) cause her to smile, and think of me, just a little.

So it was a mistake. But I think it’s an OK mistake.

The reason I think about this: Over thirty years ago, I was renovating our house in Pemberville. I had no idea at all what I was doing. But my friend Mitch did. Well, he knew much more than I did at least. He was NOT a professional builder by any means, but he made it work. And his help was invaluable.

But one day I told him we wanted to cut some dormer windows into the upstairs bedrooms. That is a significant project, to be sure. He wasn’t sure how to do it, so I remember he called in his “smarter brother” Rick for advice. Then he gave me a detailed plan. I did everything exactly as he said, to his exact specifications, to every last detail. And they turned out…wrong.

Turns out the openings weren’t wide enough for the window trim, so it looks a little odd. Also, something about the dimensions aren’t quite right, so much so that years later when I had a professional put an addition on our house, he looked at the dormers and said, “No professional did those.”

And he was right. But you know what? I liked it that way. Because every time I looked at them, I thought of Mitch. He did his best and gave all his help for free. So what was a little mistake? I mean really. Because those have always reminded me of a good friend. Since Mitch passed a little while ago, those “mistakes” are now even a little more meaningful. While I don’t live there anymore, even if I did, I would never attempt to have them fixed. Because when I look at them, I think of Mitch, and smile.

Now, my stairway lights are nothing like adding dormers. But still, hopefully, it will have the same effect, on a much smaller scale. They are just a little thing, but Jeanne will always know it’s something I did. And while she might not like their unevenness, I think she’ll be OK with it.

Mistakes? Sometimes they’re bad. But sometimes the people and actions involved in making them are worth more than the perfection that isn’t there. I’m sure every one of you reading this can think of something along these lines. And you probably won’t fix them either.

The memories are more important than perfection.