Monday, August 31, 2009

Girl with flowers



This is my first blog entry. I guess I should begin by discussing why I named this Nancy's Junk Drawer when my name is Heather.
Well it is because my moms name was Nancy. Nancy was an artist. She was a kind of a child prodigy. When she was 5 her teacher asked her to draw a rabbit. And she drew a rabbit. Not a make believe rabbit like most kids drew but a real rabbit. She then took lessons from a local art teacher and then went to Syracuse University for Design major and Art minor. She was beautiful and she was a star. Then the war came and money was tight and she had to quite school. She then married her high school sweetheart. (My wonderful dad) She had 3 lovely daughters. I don't remember a time when she was not creating something or having us create something. We were the kids on the block who's mom gave us matches so that we could burn the crayons on a bottle with all the many different colors running down the bottle, (Let me tell you that did not go over big with the rest of the moms) we won every Halloween costume party at the country club, we made candles in sand, we decoupaged , we painted and drew. She made our beautiful dresses. She painted pictures and the house. She encouraged us to make art. On top of this she worked at a local department store as the HR Manager. She did everything. She was super women. Eventually she became less interested in things and we weren't sure what was wrong but she became more and more distant. Her diagnosis was Alzheimers Disease. She was 68 years old. So I would say it was early onset. Her mother started when she was 55. She always said she made it longer then her mother. Which we were greatful for. She was 72 when she died the day after my father and mothers 50th wedding anniversary. We miss her. There are so many things I want to ask her. That I forgot. By the time I realized this. They were gone from her memory.
So my family and I have decided that we would name a blog after my mother. The whole family will be part of this blog. We will post what ever we want to. Mostly our Art. We are a family full of creative people and we owe it all to Nancy. (And my dad, he is an artist too) She always had a junk drawer full of stuff that we could use for our creations. Therefore the name of our new blog "Nancy's Junk Drawer"