Remembering Mrs. Pearson

  When I was a young girl, we lived in Colorado Springs.  Those were some awesome years for me.  My older sister was really good at art, so my mom had her taking private lessons.  Her teacher's name was Marie Pearson. Her and her husband were two of the nicest people I had ever met.  They were unable to have children of their own, so we kind of adopted them as our surrogate grandparents.  We would invite them over for Thanksgiving and Christmas.   The chalk painting above is of me when I was young.  I remember going and sitting for her while she painted away.  It was about a 4 Saturday ordeal.   The only time she wouldn't let me talk was when she was working on my mouth.   Every time I look at the painting I am reminded of them.  They were a different religion than us.  I remember being raised thinking that our religion was the only true religion.  Even in my young mind, back then I didn't believe that my religion was the only "true" religion.  And that the only people that were going to go to heaven were those of our religion.   I remember having a conversation with my mom one day about heaven.  I told her right out that I just didn't believe that God would keep her and her husband out of heaven just because they were a different religion.  They were truly one of the nicest, most compassionate couples that I ever met.  And that is something coming from a little kid.  I know they are in heaven being some kind of guardian angels.  That's just the way they were.  Thank you so much Marie for painting my picture so that I always have a remembrance of you.  You will never know the impact you had on my life and that I still think about you all the time.  I miss you both.