The Heart of the Mural
, Chana's broken vase and Shira's heart tile, 3' x
100'
One day a woman stopped to admire the work in progress and asked if I could use a broken vase that her daughter had painted. I said, "Yes," and later that day she returned with her husband and little boy. Normally I would have just thanked her for the broken vase but her story moved me so much I realized that this was a missing piece to the making of the wall. She told me that her daughter worked for very long time on the vase and that it was a big deal for her to spend s-o-o-o-o much time and energy on something like this. When it broke, Mom felt so bad about it that she had kept it on the kitchen counter for months trying to figure out what to do with it. She also brought a perfect tile of a heart that the other daughter had painted. Both of the girls were away at summer camp and we wanted to get it up before they came home so they could have a big surprise when they took their daily walk past the wall. Nessa and I decided that we should have a little ceremony right there and then. Nessa added the mastic, and the little boy and I placed the heart on the wall. Nessa then started breaking the vase into usable sizes and I started adding them to the wall around the heart tile. All of a sudden, we all realized that I was making a heart shape with Chana's broken vase. I was waiting for something special for this area and now I have it: "The heart within the Heart." I know that Chana and Shira were away at summer camp when we did this, but their Mom tells me that the walk past the mural is a well-traveled path by the family. I hope Shira and Chana enjoy seeing their handiwork for years to come! My sincere thanks!
