Stars at Night

One of the most poignant moments in our family occurred in July, 2004.  I had been spending time in New Mexico with my mom, while Don stayed home.  Diana had been in Europe, and the day after she returned home, she and Don drove to the cabin.  Since she awakened early, they were on the road early and arrived about 3 in the afternoon.  Mom and I were in Albuquerque, and unbeknownst to Don and Di, I had arranged for Kenneth to fly to Albuquerque, where Mom and I picked him up and brought him to the cabin.

As we exited the car, Kenneth looked up at the dark sky and saw an unusual formation of the Big Dipper.  We then went inside, where Don and Di were doing the dishes.  "Kenneth, what are you doing here?" Diana exclaimed, as surprised as Don was.

Throughout the next few nights, the formation continued to appear, and several times Kenneth mentioned that he wished he knew someone who could paint the picture.  That being said, none of us knew anyone, and we just had the memory of the stars.

After a few days at the cabin, everyone went home, the kids said good-bye to my mom and me.  I went back home with her, and over the next few months, I visited about every two weeks.  In September, after I took my mom to dialysis, I decided to go visit the art gallery of Angus Macpherson, a cabin neighbor and high school friend.  In high school, I had no idea he was an artist, but I had heard of his work, and I wanted to see what he did.  When I walked into his new gallery, the first picture I saw was a night sky, complete with the moon rising over a hill, shining through the trees.  I found my artist.  Over the next few weeks, I worked with Angus to have him paint a picture for each of the kids, ship it to the school, and have it ready for Christmas.

I had no idea, at the time, that my mom would pass away just before Thanksgiving, and my children would not see her after that time at the cabin.  The significance of that trip to the cabin increased in importance, and we had a rather sober Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We had planned a trip to Yellowstone, leaving on Christmas afternoon, so we had to hurry with packages in the morning.  After the last package was opened, I pulled out one more . . . and Kenneth and Di opened it together, pulling out two beautiful pictures of the night sky.  Quite an emotional moment. (Picture will be attached later.)

Fast forward 16 years.  This past weekend, Kenneth and Caleb joined us at the cabin.  While there, Kenneth went outside to see nearly the same formation as when we were there with my mom.  Now, however, he had a really good iPhone in hand with a super camera on it.  He took this picture:

Sometimes things happen that are not coincidence.  I think this was one of those times.