On April 2nd 2005, two weeks before my wedding day, Papa Giovanni Paolo II died. He was the ultimate Polish icon, hero and authority. And now he is our saint, protector and defender. I remember watching his funeral on TV. I remember how at the end of the mass pages in the bible on his coffin started flipping in the wind. At the end, the back cover flipped over and closed the book. As if this was a sign for all of us that our Papa's book has ended but we should not fear because the same wind of change keeps blowing and it will bring what is written in all of our books.
I drew this portrait especially for my one and only mama. She is so good and so faithful to principles of goodness and honestly that sometimes when I think about it I shed a tear. I am so proud to be her daughter and so happy that she was my mom. I wish I could be to be half the person and a mother she is! I am grateful for her immensely.
This portrait survived a huge fire in 2010, when my mom lived in a downtown. The fire was caused by a a spark a few floors down from her but spread all over this 30 floors high building. Many people lost their homes and their things. At the time of the fire my mom had to stay on the balcony of her 24th floor apartment for six hours while the fire department did what they do best. It was the longest, most threatening period of her life. In the aftermath of the tragedy lot of residents, such as my mom, were forced to life in hotels without clothes, documents, person items. Also, as a result of it a lot of my mom's belonging were announced by the Fire Department to be unsafe to keep due to toxicity. Luckily, this little drawing survived and still is in my mom's possession to this day.
Papa Giovanni Paolo Secondo, somehow it has a better ring in Italian than in English for me. I always refer to him in this way.
Happy Tuesday, friends!
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