Memor-y-ial

It's the end of March, and it came in like a lamb, so you know how it is going out. The next 4 days promise high winds, rain, freezing rain, snow and sleet. I don't think I'll leave the house if I can avoid it. I've laid in a stock of "storm chips" for hubby. That's become a new tradition in Newfoundland. For some reason we've forgotten that we get snow regularly into mid May and sometimes into June. Urbanization has made us soft.

But I digress. The impending arrival of April makes me think of spring, and milder weather, and days when going out and about is fun and you don't have to wear 4 layers of clothing and boots so heavy you'll drown in a pothole. If you go back in my blog posts you'll find I leave my cocoon in April, take my camera and explore. Look What the Sun Brought Out! was one such, and you'll see a photo of a statue on a huge granite boulder, spreading it's wings and reaching to the sky. In January I decided it was a good subject for a painting, and Icarus of Bay Bulls appeared under my brush.

As one does these days, I posted the finished painting on a social media site. Imagine my surprise when one of my Book Club friends asked, "Did you know that this memorial was erected to my father-in-law?" I was floored. We forget how small this province really is.

The memorial was cast by sculptor, Luben Boykov , in memory of Captain Patrick J. Coady and his crew, who were lost at sea in 1994. The sculpture sits on one of a grouping of 5 large rocks that family and friends brought, by boat, from Captain Coady's place of birth (Bar Haven), and then dug into ground to stand their guard.

My friend and her family had been very much moved by the painting, and so I was happy to be able to gift it to her. (But I did have it professionally scanned, should I want a copy. Or I may paint it again some day.)