When my mom and dad had their first child, my older sister Meg, in July 1970, my maternal grandparents offered to gift them a framed fine art print of their choice, in lieu of sending a bouquet of flowers, to celebrate the occasion of the birth of their first grandchild. My parents chose an Andrew Wyeth, as he is one of their favorite painters.
When I was born in March 1975, my Grandma Dee and Grandpa Jack gave them another Andrew Wyeth print, that my Mom and Dad picked out. Growing up, I always loved knowing the story behind two of the framed prints in their Wyeth collection, that hung in our home.
Many years later, when Meg and I started our own families, Mom and Dad offered to continue that beautiful and meaningful tradition, in lieu flowers. I have always loved Claude Monet paintings and so when Bob and I had our first child, our son Sean, in October 2003, I suggested that we choose a Monet for our gift from my parents.
That March we had moved from our condo in Evanston to our first house in Beverly, here on the southwest side of Chicago. It was a two bedroom Georgian at 100th and Claremont. Over the summer we planted a lot of annual flowers in front of our home, as well as in our backyard garden. So when browsing Monet paintings for one that spoke to me, The Artist’s Garden in Argenteuil (A Corner of the Garden with Dahlias), from 1873, stood out. The house with the abundance of flowers and what appeared to be a young couple standing together, in love and anticipation, seemed fitting as we were building our family.
That framed print, hung in our living room on Claremont for most of the 8+ years that we lived there, until we moved to our current home at 106th and Oakley, 10 years ago, in July 2011. Since then, it has hung near our front door and can be seen from both our living and dining rooms. Seeing it always makes me smile and reminds me of all that we have been through and how far we have come, since Sean was born in 2003, which also coincided with my becoming primarily a stay at home mom. The Monet, along with two other fine art prints that my parents gave us, to celebrate Molly and Abby’s births, also have been a wonderful reminder of my Mom and Dad’s love and generosity.
This past Monday, August 2nd, I started my first job in the traditional workforce, after almost 18 years, at Northwestern University, in my hometown of Evanston. I am working as a Program Assistant, in the McCormick School of Engineering, Office for Professional Education, supporting two graduate programs: Masters of Science in Analytics (MSiA) and Masters of Science in Information Technology (MSIT)!
So you can imagine my surprise and joy, when I was shown to my cubicle/workspace and looked up to find a framed print of none other than Monet’s The Artist’s Garden in Argenteuil! It felt very serendipitous, as well as like another sign from my Dad. The day before, Sunday, August 1st, was the one-month anniversary of his unexpected death. It feels very comforting to me, that whether I am working in the office on the Northwestern campus or remotely from home (as I’ll be doing two days each week), that our Monet will never be far from my view.
This is also a tradition that I intend to continue, if/when Sean or Abby have children someday, assuming they would want gifts like this from us. I also like the idea that someday they will inherit the prints that my parents got us in honor and celebration of their births.
Awhile back, I shared about the painting that we picked out for my parents to give us, soon after Molly was born and died in 2008, an original by local artist Jack Simmerling. One of these days I will also share about the print by another one of my favorite’s, George Seurat, that they gifted us when our rainbow Abby was born in 2009, in lieu of flowers.
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