Not just a picture

For Christmas this year, Matt gave me a very special gift. A month later, I'm finally going to finish this post!

As most of you know, my Papaw Buster died last summer. At his visitation, my cousins had collected various photographs to display, and among them was a picture that I'd never seen before. It was an old, black and white photo of my Papaw and his brother, my Uncle Lovey. The special thing about this picture was that my Papaw was standing up! I'd only seen one other picture of him standing up before.

I remember how tall my Uncle Lovey was, and in the picture, it looks like Papaw is even slightly taller than him! I just loved the picture so much. He was tall, young, and strong. He was wearing a white suit with his hands in his pockets. We don't know what they were doing or where they were going. We think that Papaw must have been around 19 or 20. I don't know what it is about the picture, but I just love it. I framed it and put it on the shelf in our living room.

Fast forward to November-ish. Matt has a client who is an artist. His specialty is pointillism. While I was away on my Family Medicine rotation in Hattiesburg, Matt took my favorite picture out of its frame, copied it, and put it back. He gave the copy to his artist-friend who created the most incredible, special gift I've ever received.

The pictures don't do the artwork justice. The whole thing is made of tiny, tiny pen dots. The skill and talent that this artist has is absolutely mind-blowing to me (I mean, I can't draw stick people). It looks EXACTLY like the actual photograph. Every detail. Every wrinkle in their pants, the broken step on Grandpa Arnold's back porch, the shoelaces. Incredible. Papaw is the one in the white suit with the bow-tie. It makes me so happy.

When Matt gave me the picture, tears filled my eyes, but it was the sweet note that he had written in a card that made me cry so hard. He wrote, "Laura, I know how much your grandfather meant to you. This artwork was done by a gentleman named Glenn Sanford, and the form of art is called pointillism. I commissioned this artwork so that you will always remember what an inspiration he was to you, and the reason you want to be a doctor. I will always miss Buster and his stories, and I know you will too. I hope that every time you look at this artwork, you are inspired to always take one day at a time, to remember the strength that Buster had to overcome what was said to be impossible, and to become the doctor that always fights for her patients."

Wow. What a gift. It is hanging in our house now, but someday I want to hang it in my office, so that every single day I am reminded of why I do what I do. It makes me smile everyday. I like having the image of him standing up. It reminds me of the fact that that's what he's like now in Heaven--standing and walking in a perfect body.

Thank you, Matthew.