"When I visit members of my family, I have the surprise of also "visiting" my mother. In each house, apartment or cabin hangs a Martha McLean painting, her brush strokes, color choice and compositions all so familiar."
from Martha Lamb McLean, a book that I recently compiled of my mother's art.
Here in my sister's apartment in Portland hangs a painting of the barn at Potton Hilltop in Quebec painted on a window screen. My mother was a master at painting on recycled materials and this choice of a screen was brilliant. The barn hovers like a ghost below the house.
The barn was blown down during a fierce storm of wind and rain which swept across the exposed hilltop. My father was in the house at the time probably listening to a Boston Red Sox game on the radio. After the storm, he walked outside to find the barn completely gone. The roof had sailed off down the hill and the walls fell in on each other like a house of cards. Wouldn't that have been a sight to see?
Another sight to see is sun in January in Portland, Oregon. It lasted one day and now we are deep in what is called by the weather people, "freezing fog."
Sun at breakfast!
2 comments:
Wonderful snapshot...and now the chair
Enters the archive...arrives in Prime Time!
The distant cousin, now in a faraway clime
Longs for it's twin. Yes, to make a pair!
But it's not to be...no more atop the stair.
In Chestnut St, once upon a time
Followed by basements, no more in it's prime
Now on a new stage, generations can share.
Yes, two chairs again joined, again a pair
North to South on I-5, five hours of time
But close as can be, three women to bind
The chairs again joined..how better to share!
Our histories live on through things cherished and given away: the chairs given by Donny, the paintings given by Mom, the book of paintings given by Barb, and breakfast in sunny Oregon given to my sister with so much love and appreciation for the time and effort she puts in to getting here!
Thank you, Barb, for snapshotting the things that jog our memories and share our experiences so we can all be connected.
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