Seems like a year ago, but it was only last month, on Halloween, that I popped over to Dad’s house for a visit in the evening, and noticed for the first time that something was a little amiss.
Less than two weeks later, on November 13th, he passed peacefully at the hospital in Neenah, WI with family by his side. He was 80. And, in hindsight he did not have but would have appreciated, he was wielding his chainsaw, making firewood, driving his four wheeler around the woods and plying his forklift to move mammoth logs up until just a week or so before he departed this world.
So. Here come the holidays. My brother, who had flown into town with enough time to say goodbye, stayed for the small and unassuming service Dad would have wanted. Friends and family departed. Less than a week later, Thanksgiving was a thing. Spent it with a friend in town who lost their partner of many years just a few months ago. And Christmas is around the corner.
None of this, of course, has to do with a rushed painting of northern cardinals. Except maybe that, since Dad has been reunited with Mom (who passed 2014), I’ve been seeing a lot of a happy pair of cardinals at the bird feeder out my window while I paint.
Maybe I’ll do more of a memorial painting next month. Or next year. For November it’s just a painting of cardinals: a lovely pair of soulmates.