A Blast from the Past

The pastel drawing above is now in my kitchen, quite by an amazing turn of events - divine intervention I believe. Here is how the story unfolds... I completed this drawing in 1992. I was dating a very monstrous young man at the time (another story) and was sitting out in his mother's garden at his home. She had purchased me a set of pastels and a sketchbook after hearing that I loved to draw and paint. These are her impatiens (I believe they were impatiens - pink flowers at any rate). After a few torturous months I finally rid myself of this young man and moved on with my pastel painting intact in the sketchbook. Later I framed this and then after I married my husband in 1994 this painting became linked to an old memory that I wanted to be rid of naturally. Our neighbor at the time was a dear older lady who had no close family and lived alone. When my daughter was born, she came to see us bearing gifts and we became acquaintences. She valued art and I gave her this piece. Years pass and my daughter is now 13... We moved and I've wondered about this sweet lady often since...

To the present... there is a church across the street from our house and they were having a yard sale last Saturday. I walked across the road and looked down to see this very pastel painting. I screamed, "I did that!!!" "How did you get it!!" Of course, upon remembering when and where I completed the work and forgetting that I had kept it after the breakup, my first thought was that it had somehow come to be there through this old boyfriend's family and I got a very sick feeling in my stomach, but then I kept asking and as it turns out, the nephew of that dear lady whom I had given this painting is actually the pastor of the church across the street from me!!! She is now in a nursing home and they had cleaned out her home and most of the things in the yard sale belonged to her. He had now bought the property where she lived and was renting out her home. BUT, the lady is still living although her mind is very bad, so I can actually go and visit her in the nursing home. She won't know me of course, but maybe it will make her feel good to have a visitor.

Now of course it is (as we all know) every artist's dream to have her work in a yard sale for $2, but it makes a great story nonetheless. I donated the money for the painting, refusing to say that I was buying it since I was the artist, and brought it back to its original home.

Amazing, huh!! Coincidence, I don't think so...