Saturday, February 9, 2008

What Love Is

WARNING: Potential tear-jerker here. Especially if you are my mother or Big Man's mother.

I don't know about you, but my perception of love has matured over the years. I attribute that partly to maturity and partly to observation. My maternal grandparents played a great part in my view of how love works in a marital relationship and I wanted to document that in a layout. So this is what I came up with. It was really hard to photograph because I used a Hambly transparency as my background. Therefore, I am posting two pictures so that hopefully between the two of them, you can piece it together.

Let me include a bit of history. My grandma died of Alzheimers (I'm pretty sure that I spelled that wrong.) Before she started forgetting everything, she took great care of my grampa: always serving him and fussing over him. When she got sick and could no longer function well, the roles were reversed and my grampa did a marvelous job caring for her. He was ever attentive, patient and kind. I remember that he kept her car for years after she was unable to drive it because he didn't want her to feel incompetent. Not only that, but he patiently listened to the same stories and the same confused questions over and over again simply because he loved her.

They are both gone now, but I will always remember what they taught me about love and that it isn't always 50-50. Sometimes it's 90-10, and that's okay. (Obviously, I'm not advocating unhealthy relationships here, however.)




Journaling: As I child, I saw her fussing over him as silly. As a teen, I noticed that he always watched over her and protected her. As an adult, I realized that when she started forgetting, he tenderly picked her up and carried her until she quietly whispered goodbye.

Pattern paper: Hambly wood grain and transparency; Daisy D’s; Fancy Pants; Creative Imaginations

Stamps: Fancy Pants

Ink: Stazon and Ranger walnut ink

Pens: Faber Castell

Ribbon: from joggles.com

Other: Prima flowers, buttons from Joanns; Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, brads MM;

8 comments:

Rachel said...

WOW... SIMPLY WOW! You gave me serious goosebumps. You my love are a true artist, and have a very insightful mind!

Rachel

Sandra said...

Oh my! This layout is gorgeous! Your journaling (and the story on the blog) are really touching.

Anonymous said...

this is so amazing. i love it. have you ever heard that dixie chicks song, "silent house"? It reminds me of your story. thanks so much for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Love it all as usual Bethany. And for the record...you did spell Alzheimer's correctly!

kristan

Anonymous said...

I like the second pic better, B! I love how you can see the clear-ness of it!

Love this lo of yours. the journaling still brings tears to my eyes.

Shanne said...

The journaling is perfect and really touching. You really made your point without spelling it all out. Love this layout.

Shane, Meg, CJ, RJ, and AL said...

This is AMAZING, Bethany! I adore it. What a beautiful tribute.

Unknown said...

Saw this Lo on badgirls- it is truly stunning and I love the sentiment behind it too>