A set of footprints on my heart...

Some come into our lives and forever leave their footprints upon our hearts.  And I have been very blessed to have many sets of footprints upon mine.

I was seventeen when I began living on my own in my last year of high school.  The same year I was being sponsored at a art gallery as the youngest artist they ever represented.  Also I worked in a busy florist and gift shop too, which became a touchstone of my life for years to follow.

The owner, Ella, discovered very quickly that as a artist I had a natural gift for arranging flowers.  She also had my artwork selling well in her gift shop.

What with the kind of childhood I had, Ella, like my other older, dear mentor friends through these early years of my life, Nora, Joseph, and Jackie, each gave me guidance and support when I needed it most.  For you see, they each showed me what having loving parents was like too.

Including Ella and myself, there were three to five 
others also working in the florist and gift shop.  We each did everything from flower arranging, taking orders, making deliveries, doing weddings, and funerals.

Of course hilarious stories abound.😂

One time when I delivered flowers to a funeral home built like a maze, I went in and there was no one to be found anywhere.  It was dead quiet.  And I couldn't find the room for flowers.

And then...AND THEN I entered a room and saw 

a strange looking man without a shirt on partially sitting up as I so very politely blurted out the following to him...

"Oh dear, please excuse me.  I'm terribly sorry, but 

I can't find the...the...HOLY SHIT!  YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!"😱  

It was then I heard hysterical laughter coming from a back room.  Then it was HIS turn to be caught off guard when the Director came out encountering a very charming Little Person dressed like a hippie trying to manage a huge floral arrangement as big as she was to be placed on the coffin for the "HOLY SHIT YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD" guy!😂  

Because I managed to make such a very memorable impression upon the Owner/Director of the largest most successful funeral home, he began throwing all his floral needs to Ella, giving her florist a huge boost.  

She never dreamed my charm and very expressive 

word use which could suddenly come pouring out in certain situations like HERS did too, would grow 

her business.🤣

Anyway, we did both large weddings and very small ones too.  At one of the very small ones once, the pianist did not show up, and the couple were quite distraught as would be expected.  Our hearts were breaking for them.

Ella turned to me, "Adelaide, let's help them out." 

So I played the piano for their wedding!  They were deeply touched.  And profoundly grateful.  Yet so were we as it was such a blessing for us TO be able to help them.😃

For decades my dear mentor friends Nora, Joseph, Ella, Jackie, and I remained very close until their passings, as I followed Theatre jobs with a horse in tow, having spine surgeries, many other surgeries, and then faced a dire cancer prognosis shared in a recent blog, when the three of them (Jackie lost her own cancer battle by then) traveled for hours just to surprise and be with me.  

When I was seventeen, using special Japanese brushes and ink, I did three separate galloping horse paintings on heavy paper, each one as tall as me.  Ella had them framed, and two immediately sold.  For some reason though, the third one was not selling.  Then I discovered why.  You see Ella loved that painting and whenever art collectors sought to purchase it, she told them it had been sold.  

I didn't care.  Because she later told me how much the painting meant to her, then explained why, and I will never forget her words. 

"Adelaide, when you came into my life, though you were uncertain and terrified by a world and your parents who rejected you, I saw...I felt...this spirit, this powerful life force burning in you who refused to be broken.  Even though your eyes were filled of sorrow, your inner fire soared free right off the paper in your horses.  Especially in this one I can't bear to part with, because it is everything we love about you, and everything you touch in us, because you...broke...free."

Wow.

Ella kept it with her until her passing.💕🐎

My dear ones...there are always those who come into our lives forever leaving their footprints upon our hearts...and often when they do we are never the same again.🐎💕