The other day, Georges and I received the most unexpected and beautiful gift from his sister "V", the sister who lives in Saint Raphael in the south. She has been learning watercolor techniques and considers herself a beginner, but we've been very impressed with both her charcoal sketches and with her first watercolor attempts. She often emails or texts us photos of whatever she's been working on, and are we taking so much pleasure in her talent and in her enjoyment of her new creative pursuit. This woman IS an artist!
So when a big brown envelope arrived in the mail this week, addressed to both of us, I waited until Georges got home from work before opening it. I knew it probably contained a drawing or a watercolor, but I expected it to be part of a project she's working on with Georges -- illustrating a book of short stories he's been working on (yes, I'm married to a writer!)
We opened the envelope and at first I thought it was simply a lovely beach scene. But then Georges very excitedly pointed out to me what it REALLY was:
This is my amazing sister-in-law's painting of the moment Georges proposed to me on our "Melon Beach" - complete with the melon he dropped, and his chapeau, and the little island of red rocks known as Le Lion.
As it sunk in, what this was a painting of, I simply had no words. I just burst into tears! Even now, I can't express what I feel when I look at it, not without tearing up again, especially when I think of the love she put into making this. I know she will critique herself and say she's just a débutante, but even so... it is just wonderful, and we will treasure this for the rest of our lives.
Merci, ma soeur. From the bottom of my very full heart, merci.
