AN IRIS FOR VAIDA

AN IRIS FOR VAIDA, a photo by Louise001 on Flickr.

I painted this Watercolor and Ink painting of an Iris today as my way of memorializing my Beloved Aunt Vaida who passed away this week a few days before her 93rd Birthday. As I painted I reflected on my memories of her, who was my favorite woman relative since childhood. She was a mentor and one who I most admired and wanted to be like. She was my inspiration and even my benefactor at a time when in my first marriage in San Francisco where we both lived, I discovered I had married an abusive man, who in fact almost killed me. I escaped and she and my uncle Max supplied me with much needed furniture for my apartment and many words of encouragement. I have very fond memories of us talking and sharing for hours, over coffee in her beautiful home, or over the telephone, for all these years. She inspired my interest in the arts and Opera. She and her husband held season tickets to the SF Opera every year. She was a brilliant woman and a highly thought of and skilled surgical nurse who toward the end of her career assisted Drs in Heart & Cancer research. She raised two successful, and brilliant children, who gave her many grandchildren and great grandchildren and was a woman to be greatly admired. We had a special kindred soul bond, and besides music and art we also shared a deep love of gardening and flowers, especially Iris and we both raised many varieties. Both of us were raised on farms and went on to become successful in our careers. We both believed strongly in Women's Rights and that all people are created equal.

This Watercolor will be framed immediately and go on my own wall in a prominent place where it will keep her memory alive, and I will miss her greatly; she will always live in my heart.