An Art Heart and My Aunt's Secret

in #art8 months ago (edited)
Happy Wednesday !
I'm off of work today. I originally thought I'd get one thing scratched off my to-do list in that I would take my car for it's yearly inspection, but that is not going to happen since it needs some repair that would not let it pass. I still have several weeks to get it done, so I am not really worried about it.
I was playing with another practice piece with my collage art and had chosen to make a heart the main subject of it. Fairly recently, my phone camera has started taking photos on it's on frequently. Sure it has always taken a few here or there, but it seems like it is doing it much more frequently now. I'll be trying to get something lined up straight in the lens and before I can get it where I want it and click it myself. "CLICK !!!'.... it takes one itself. Since you can set them up for voice activation, which I also have, I don't quite understand the point of the camera choosing to take some itself. Maybe there is a reason that I am just not aware of.... anyway..... after I took a photo recently of my art, as I was moving the camera away, "CLICKUP".... another random photo. Afterwards though, there ended up being two kind of like this. I usually just delete the ones I don't intentionally take, but I found I liked this one, so I kept it, at least for the post. It looks like the colors are kind of zooming up into space.

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This is how it really is though. It's a little busy, but I still like it. It could be I like it because of the colors as I love the purples, teal, aqua and yellow together. It was fun to make.

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Here's a shot a little further back from it. It's a happy little pop of color.

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Now for my aunt's secret. My Aunt Frances was my Daddy's sister. She passed last year at 88 or 89 years old. She had been the last living sibling of my father's family.
I had always liked her and she was always kind to me, never through the years missing sending a birthday and Christmas card at the appropriate times. She did that not only for me, but all my siblings and any time anyone was willing to get together for a lunch or anything, she was ready to show up. Not everyone saw her exactly as I did as some of them took her words and actions differently. She was direct and honest, which sometimes appeared a little tactless. I always just looked at it as that was the way she was raised as my Dad was sometimes a little like that. She wasn't rude or argumentative, but she was straight forward. When raising her kids and when they were old enough to date and the such, she was very opinionated! Some thought she was a little overbearing about it and felt sorry for one or two of them.
Sometime in my late teen years or early 20s, during family stories just between me & my Dad, he told me she had been married before the Uncle that I knew her to be with all my life. He said it had not lasted long as it turns out the first husband was violent. Thing is, she had not told her children (she had 4) about it, so Dad said to please not mention it to any of them. That was no problem for me. Even though I knew it, I really didn't dwell on it or have any urge to repeat it. I figured she would tell them when she was ready.
Turns out, she never told them and after she passed, when they were getting all the info together for all the legal things that are required, her children, now all in their late 50s and 60s, found that included in the records was the marriage license from her first marriage. It showed my mother as being the witness, so you can only imagine the scramble amongst her children to contact my Mom. My Mom had her phone number for about 45 years, but just at that time, she had changed phone companies that had lied and told her she could keep her long held number. Afterwards, it could not be kept and so she had a new number that the cousins didn't have. Next thing you know they were trying to contact some of us for Mom's number, however, we didn't know why at the time. 😄
In the end, one of my cousin's finally got Mom's number and called to ask her about it. They were a little shook and a LOT surprised. Mom told them what she could remember and why the marriage had begun and ended so fast. There really wasn't a lot of "other" to tell about that short story. I did wonder if that was why my Aunt had been so vocal about possible partners her children were choosing way back in the day. Maybe, maybe not, but now she was gone and they couldn't ask her any questions about it.
I had wondered before why she didn't tell her children when they were well grown. Something like that is not generally unusual these days, but back in her day, it was just something you didn't wear and I'm sure she would like to have forgotten it ever happened. I also wondered after, if my Aunt realized her children would see that after she was gone or if it never crossed her mind that the marriage license might surface and her children would find out.
You like to think you know someone.... especially your parents... .right ? Maybe you do, maybe you don't.
Life can be messy sometimes, just like my art table after the heart art creation. 😂

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Life isn't always black and white.... is it ?

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I don't know about many skeletons in my family, although I'm sure there are some more, just like when a cousin on the other side of my family was given the DNA kit as a fun gift a couple of years back. When you have those, you have a choice of keeping your results private, only given back to you, or if you choose, they will add them to a database and pull other's names who are kin to you (if they have done the same)..... where in the end, it appears to show he has a sister that his dad is the father, that no one knew about. YIKES !! LOL... oh well....
I hope you are all doing well, that fun things are going on in your life and that none of your skeletons accidentally escape from your closet
Love you !
Jacey

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Wow interesting... She was just trying to protect them,I hope they didn't resent her before she died
Great artwork too 👏👏

I don't think most of them resented her at all, in fact, the ones she tried to warn went ahead with the partners they chose and neither of them worked out well. I suppose she could see it, but couldn't exactly say why.

Thanks !

That's sad, I wish they had listened... Like they say "mothers know better"

You're welcome 😊