In Pittsburgh’s hilltop streets and river neighborhoods, the “Honking Chair” is a quiet rebellion against forgetting. A plain kitchen or folding chair is set out for someone who has died, often with a handwritten sign: “Honk for Grandma,” “Honk for Mike,” “Honk for Our Troops.” It looks ordinary, but it works like a beacon. Each honk is a pulse of recognition, a split-second message to the family inside: we see them, we remember, we’re still here with you.
The choice of a chair is no accident. In these neighborhoods, a kitchen chair is where stories were told, coffee was shared, and arguments settled. By placing it at the curb, families pull the living and the dead into the same small space between house and street. It turns traffic into a chorus, grief into ritual, and a simple piece of furniture into a seat that’s always waiting, always reserved for the one who’s gone.