A Surprise While We Were Away

Hubby and I are back from our mini trip. When we finally arrived at our destination, we were ready to relax and have some fun. There was a small hiccup in our plans. On the way there, a man in a pickup truck pulled up beside us at the traffic stop to let us know that we had no brake lights. Fortunately we were in a large town so we figured they were bound to have a Canadian Tire store (Canadian chain store affectionately and often referred to as "Crappy Tire"). We found one and they were able to fix the problem and it only delayed our trip by 45 minutes. Would you believe it was a simple matter of replacing the bulbs and that both had burned out at the same time?

We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast and spent much of the time just wandering around. One of the places we wandered into was an antiques shop. We were browsing in separate aisles, when suddenly I said in a very loud voice something like "on my, I can't believe it, I can't believe it". Hubby and the store proprietor came rushing over to see what the noise was all about. What I couldn't believe is pictured below.

























You might say it's a nice enough painting but why all the fuss? Well, this is personal to me because it was painted by Estonian artist Benita Vomm, who was a family friend of 50 years before she passed away several years ago. The whole family, Benita, her husband, son and daughter, were all artists. Only her daughter (who is also my sister's godmother) is still alive today. It would have meant a lot to me to be able to purchase this lovely painting, but the price was beyond my budget. The proprietor was kind enough to allow hubby to take a photo. Mr Proprietor was also quick to give us his card in case we should have a change of heart. I am having the photo developed to send to the daughter as I am sure she will be interested in this happy discovery of ours.

Even though I can't have this painting, the abstract floral below, also by Benita Vomm has been in my collection for over 30 years, so I am happy to at least have it.