My Mother's Painting

My mother painted this picture in 1969 in a art class when she was 12 years old. This painting has always hung in one of the guest bedrooms at my grandmother's house. I have always loved this painting, and have always taken the time to look at it when I headed down to Texas for the holidays. I always hoped to one day have this painting.

Our family has been going through some hard times, which really is just par for the course in my family. Nobody is ever fully getting along, and this is usually due to one person. And if I were to explain the whole situation, this blog post would be a million words longs. And I don't want to dwell on something that has already been such a headache for so long.

But I will say this: the only thing I regret in the whole situation is that I never stood up to him. Everyone in my family once agreed that no matter what this person said/did we would ignore it to keep the peace. In that way, I think we contributed to making him a monster. And over the years this person said/did do a lot of mean things to all of us. And I never stood up for myself, and I regret it. Because when you don't stand up for yourself, it is like you are saying you are not worth standing up for. And that ultimately effects how you feel about yourself. Man, I should be the next Dr. Phil.

This evil person in my family is in charge of my grandmother's finances. One day my grandmother is going to pass away. And this person will be at the funeral, meaning that my mother and I will not be.I know that sounds weird and callous and you probably would wonder why we couldn't just suck it up. But this is not about hurt feelings or anger, but just about avoiding a person who is truly, honestly, pure evil. I loved my grandmother in life, and I won't need a ceremony to say goodbye.

My grandmother has promised me a lot of things over the years. Just things that she wanted me to have to remember her to by, and the truth is because he is in charge of the will, I will probably get nothing. That is OK with me because stuff is stuff and I don't need stuff to remember her. But I really was sadden by the fact that my mom's painting would most likely be thrown out. So my mother talked to my grandmother about the whole situation (without telling her about how we will not be coming to her funeral), and I was ultimately able to get the painting.

It arrived in the mail a few weeks ago, and I'm so excited to have this hanging on our bedroom wall. Plus, it is covering a pretty big hole in the wall, so that just makes it perfect.