He won the lottery.
As a mathematician, he knew the odds.
He didn’t buy a ticket to win, but for the “fantasy”.
What were his? A Lamborghini, and big house, he said.
Did he purchase the car & home when he won tens of millions?
No.
“Both impractical, really” was his thoughtful reply.
What he did do with the windfall?

He gave an enormous donation to a University in memory of his beloved professor.
Speaking of his teacher, his gaze softened, exhibiting more emotion than he had of the lotto win.
You just knew his mentor had taught more than just math.
He was a gift to me, he said.

Early in our friendship she asked for an art lesson.
“I’ll bring wine” she quipped.
“Laura, you don’t paint” a mutual friend said.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t ”she replied with a sparkle in her eyes.
Sparkle she did, in every room she wandered into.

Over a long lunch a couple of months ago we spoke of her recent diagnosis and fear.
“You know,” she said, pausing, mimicking her expression of moments earlier recalling a recipe.
“I just don’t have any” waving her fork absently in the air.
“I am not in denial. I just choose to be positive.”
She also chose to raise money for hospice.
10,000 dollars in fact.

We had another long lunch planned two weeks ago to chat about everything from fashion scarves to families when I found myself at her service instead.
“I want more.” I whispered to no one, tears streaming down my face.
I want that lunch date, and those group dinners with so much laughter.
I want more Laura stories and to feel the warmth of her hugs carrying her soft scent, her bracelets clinking behind my neck.

Inspired by her generosity, I created a painting in her memory for hospice.
Her love of gardening, Italy, and the light she brought to so many lives infused in the painting.

Lavender 14×18 original oil ~donation gift to hospice

The very moment I laid my brush upon it’s completion, an email popped up from my friend Myah’s Mom, about a fairy painting.

Fairy- original oil 6×8 ~ gift to the Windrim Family

Myah did visit my studio for an art ‘lesson’.

A cricket chirped outside my studio window as our brushes swirled.
“How nice it is”, she remarked “to listen to crickets while we paint”.
We talked about her passion for fairies and art.
Fairies don’t have names, seasons, a tie to colour or song, she informed me.
“It’s not like that”.
I wondered what her fairies were like, so she drew them for me.
Her beautiful drawing is still tacked on my studio wall.

During her last days Myah’s school friends decorated her entire stoop with hundreds of fairies.

“Myah’s Wings” raised $35,000 at Megan’s walk for Sick Kids months ago after her passing.

Whether we have known inspiring souls a long or short time,
we feel equally robbed of it.
Future memories & moments stolen from us, like a pulled rug from beneath our feet.
We want more.
More hugs, shared laughter & painting dates. More time.

But time is elusive, slipping between our outstretched fingers like grains of sand.

I didn’t entirely accept Tennyson’s quote when I was young,
“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
I do know it’s a gift to have known such deep rich love, and people like Laura & Myah.

To honour the gift is to carry on by their example.
To live life drenched in colour, vibrantly, quietly determined, embrace passion, engage, give back, be brave, fearless,
and perhaps believe in fairies.
Their timeless gifts, like our love, live on.

p.s
Several elements need to be considered in creating a painting for hospice.
Most importantly, the people who will be in it’s midst, visitors & patients.
When people are ill, too much stimuli can be overwhelming, a softer palette is used, with the texture controlled to a minimum.

The painting needs to look well in dim and bright light, natural and artificial.
The light within the piece will glow in these varying types of lighting.
Cerulean blue is used to create the ‘glow’.
I’ve put it in the lavender and tiny hints in the sky.

The moving sway of the field is meant to mimic a visual lullaby.
Green is the most calming colour ( proven in psychiatric studies) there is a hint of it within the entire painting, even the sky.

Lavender is a herb often used in sleep aid, it’s scent a universal calming influence. Even the sight of the herb to those who have experienced the scent may induce the calming effect.
~
In memory of Laura Mantovan (53) ~ Nov 23 1961- July 30th 2015
Myah Windrim (8) ~ Aug 27 2006 – Feb 19 2015