Helen, My Kind Of Hero

Helen is my new hero.  She’s living at The Mansion recovering from and a serious accident.  I have  no doubt she will be going home again.  She’s determined, upbeat and kind.

“Set back is my come back”, she said to me. “That’s my motto”.

Helen is  one of the the most positive people I’ve ever known.  She’s already recovered more than any one thought she would.  She’s confident and believes in herself and her ability to heal through hard work and a good attitude.

When Susan was struggling to draw a leaf and said she wasn’t a good artist and couldn’t draw, Helen was right there.  “Don’t say that about yourself,” she told Susan,” tell yourself you can do it, I know you can draw.”

And Helen is right.  Susan has a hard time starting, but once she gets going, she can draw anything she tries to.

Yesterday in my class at The Mansion, we were finishing fragments of drawings that came from famous paintings.  Veronica, who used to teach art, sent me two folders full exercises that gives a drawing prompt and allows the student to finish it.

We were working with paintings by  Norman Rockwell and Paul Gauguin. I brought in books with images from both artists and we looked thought them to get a feeling for the kind of art each painter created.

Everyone was familiar with Rockwell, because of the popularity of his art, but also because he lived and worked nearby.  Jenn told the story of another resident at The Mansion who was a model for Rockwell when he was a kid.

“I know it doesn’t look like it, but that’s a baby in a carriage,” Betty said to me pointing to the soft pencil drawing in the upper corner of the paper.

I could not see the image in drawing, but I did see the concentration with which Betty drew it. She was completely intentional as if she were clearly seeing something I couldn’t.

But what I couldn’t see in her drawing, I could feel.  It’s soft and tender with a sense of being bundled and safe. Even the placement on the paper speaks to the full attention the woman is giving the baby.

As she had done in every class so far, Helen was making her drawing for her daughter.  “It’s called Harper’s World, she told me.  “There’s everything in it that she loves.”

I left some of the prompts for people to work on and Helen said she would give one to her daughter when she came to visit.  “I made her a drawing,” she said, “now she can make one for me.”

Almost everyone was still working on their drawings when the class was over.  We said good bye, gave some hugs and I left them to it.