Sunday, March 24, 2013

Geneva's Home in Weston, Idaho

Geneva's Home
Oil Painting
14x18x1
Judy Vars
328.00
 
Today is my mother Betty's birthday and I painted her childhood home for her birthday gift. This is the farm house in which she was raised. It was built in the late 1800s by my great grandparents; the house came from a kit in the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue.  My happiest memories as a child were there, reading fairy tales cradled in a tree, snooping through almost 100 years of stuff, teasing the stupid sheep, running and playing all day and at night seeing the Milky Way in all it's glory.

On a sentimental journey my sister Patty and I drove up to Weston, Idaho  we visited our dearly departed realitves at Weston's tiny cemetary and to see our Grandmothers abandoned house.
We were disappointed to see that the house had been torn down and the land and trees had been cleared for alfalfa.
The neighbor kids came over to see what we were doing there, we told them we were the granddaughters of the woman who used to live on this land. They were curious to know all about her. Geneva was her name she was a school teacher and a very eccentric woman, she loved to give birthday cards to everyone, and all-day-suckers to children to teach them to say; please and thank you. The kids and showed us that the house had been carefully disassembled and stored in a shed. They intend to reconstruct it again someday. Isn't that a wonderful plan?

My Mom, she passed in 1998 of Lou Gehrig’s disease. My mother was a very high strung person, she swore like a sailor and she could be very creative with her cuss words, you were foolish to get on her bad side. She was also the funniest, most generous, compassionate and genuinely kind person that I have ever known. Like a lot of gruff people they must maintain their hard shell outter shell to protect their gooey goodness inside.

Mom, you left us too soon, I always imagined you would always be around we would be old ladies together, mom and daughter shopping, lunching and watching The Days of our Lives together.

On days like this I miss you more.

Time and love has finally healed my heart, you were a the best mother that I could have had.
I hope that I was a good daughter to you also.

I love you and miss you more than I can say! 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER
Your Eldest Daughter
Judy