A Personal Gift

We are heading off to Europe in just a few weeks. We are taking a two week small ship cruise along the Adriatic coast and will end in Zagreb. We hope to spend a day with Booky who lives there.

We then travel by train to Vienna where we will be met by Dana from a tiny town in the Czech Republic called Jaromerice. In 1998 Arvin and I visited that town as part of the Whatcom Chorale tour to Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. Some of the travelers had the option to spend the two nights at the home of one of the locals. We chose this option and had an amazing visit with the Hrda family. It was instant rapport even though only Dana spoke any English at all, and she spent lots of time with a dictionary in hand. 

We bonded with the young couple and their two young children. They lived in a compound that had been owned by the family for generations. They got this place back after the break up of Yugoslavia. Stanislav's parents and uncle lived there too and we all had wonderful times together. Turns out they were singers so we all sang together and had wonderful moments of connection with no mutual language except music and love. 

When we left we were all crying because we hated to leave. Stan gave us an amazing inlaid wood picture of flowers he made in high school. We were so touched by this gift of a family heirloom. 

Stanislav is a master wood worker and has a factory in the family compound where he makes furniture, flooring and other wood products. Dana was a home economics teacher in college when we visited. After we left she returned to school and became an English teacher.

Fast forward seventeen years and you will see us visiting this family again. The parents are now in their early 50s and the kids in their 20s. We will spend three days with them during our trip. The older generation is not around any more but their memory is still with us and I am sure we will all talk of them and remember the times we shared while we are there. 

I wanted to create a special personal gift for the family. I decided to make a small painting, 9x12 inches, of the view from our deck so they could have a piece of our lives here in the US. This is the painting. Soon I'll frame and wrap it carefully to carry with us to their home. From our home and our lives to theirs. Arvin and I are both looking forward to this visit.