[C0LLETTE]

My Mother was a painter. After her death, I collected what was left of her unsold or undistributed paintings, sketches, drawings, drafts, scribbled ideas, bits and pieces and put them in a series of portfolios she had kept ... and stored them away to give to my daughter, her granddaughter...when the time seemed right.

My daughter recently told me that I'm about to be a grandmother. I decided the time is now right but because they live in Australia, I figured I should spread the art haul out over time: sending some, bringing some with me when I visit. So I started sorting through it.

And there it was... my grade school art, drawings, colourings...a mini portfolio full of bits of my childhood that she had kept and slipped inside her own portfolio some 65 years before. She had done what I had done with my own daughter's art...and now these 3 generations of art will be sent to Australia to be the heritage of the fourth generation of this surviving family. This is a miraculous and happy story.