"Seventy Years Ago"___3.5 x 16 oil on linen panel___click to enlarge___$250I imagine that seventy years ago this farmscape probably looked just about the same. I painted it today from a photo, using a long piece of linen panel I have....It was a pensive moment as I painted this, now looking back on my relationship with a wonderful lady who passed into eternity, yesterday. Her picture is below, taken 70 years ago!!
Helen Vaughan was my husband's Grandmother, my children's GREAT-Grandmother. I counted her as my Grandmother, too, since I lost all mine while I was young. She was from that Great American generation which loved freedom and worked hard for everything they had. She rode and trained Arabian horses til she was past 80! She was the youngest at heart as anyone could be...never getting TOO set in her ways. But her GREATEST ability was that she was able to make YOU the center of attention. She had a way of engaging in conversation that never pointed to herself, and she did this by asking questions. Questions that could NOT be answered by merely a "yes" or "no": "What is your favorite thing to think about?" "What did you enjoy playing when you were little?" "Tell me about your best friend when you were ten"...A few days ago she asked me "what month is this"? I said "It's October..."and had to bite my tongue, because I ALMOST reminded her that in a few days it would be the day that her beloved Eddie, our Pappy died, in 2001....She was a Texas woman through and through, but "all-girl" as she loved dolls, and shoes and accessorizing! ...we all laughed at the contents of her suitcase, which she took to the hospital a few weeks ago: about 300 packets of sweet-n-low and 7 pairs of shoes! I do not remember seeing anything else in that suitcase....Grandmother seemed to wait till she had seen everyone yesterday, and just as the last few family members left for a bite of dinner, she left us....October 28, 2009, exactly one month past her 97th birthday, and EXACTLY, to the day, 8 years after Pappy died...same day...
She loved Jesus, and now is alive like Him, forever....THANK YOU, Lord for Grandmother Helen.
Helen Vaughan (left) and Dorothy Miller, her life-long best friend ...Dorothy just died this week, too....The photo was taken in 1939. Seventy years ago.
What a wonderful tribute to an exceptional woman. She is an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI agree - a wonderful tribute to a special lady from a special lady. God Bless!
ReplyDeleteThat's an amazing story and a wonderful post and tribute to your Nana. I think of her kitchen light being on early in the morning, back on the farm.
ReplyDeleteLove the paintings, too!
What a wonderful and sad Story, so
ReplyDeletesad it brought tears to me, and a lump in my throat. What a wonderful young but old lady she was eh? Brilliant paintings as well
V. All the best.
Vic.
I am sorry for your loss. What an amazing story though for her to have died on the same day as her husband 8 years later. She sounded like a lady that loved life and really lived it. Inspiring.
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about "Grandmother Vaughan". She's someone I would have loved to have known..
ReplyDeleteVirginia, Thank you for the wonderful tribute to your Grandmother and my Aunt Helen here on your blog and at the services yesterday. She truly was an amazing, fun loving woman that we were all so blessed to have known. I'm going to miss her immensely.
ReplyDeleteLove to you and your family,
Glenda
A very poignant photgraph. A very poignant message in your post. Touching to see two friends enjoying each other in this fleeting moment. They lived together and left together. Thank You, Lord indeed. Thank you, V.
ReplyDelete