This past week my aunt arrived with family treasures she had packed away in a box back in 2007. Inside were photos of my Grandmother as a young woman with my father as a child, more photos of my father as a toddler and a wedding photo of my parents.  There were also various breakables wrapped in old newspaper.  Looking into the box, I gasped, certain I was seeing a familiar face.  I asked my aunt when she had packed these things, she assured me it had been many years ago –but after my mother had passed.  She had put them away and this was the first time we had seen each other since, life has been complicated these past few years.

As I looked back into the box I saw the face with a red hat staring back at me and I realized what I was looking at was a newspaper advertisement for a Renoir exhibitions with a full color page of “The sisters on the terrace” or as I so fondly refer to it as the lady with the tomato hat. It had winked at me from heaven twice before and again today.  Spirit is always near us, winking from their perch.