Thankful Series…Greg

It was time, we got a reminder that we had to clean out my husbands art room. A room nobody had stepped since March 2020. The art projects were still on the shelves…the 3:30 class was working on creating alphabet cards, the 5:30 class was doing sculptures. There were pencils on the floor and sign up sheets for Summer 2020 camps. It was a time capsule. It was before.

We were supposed to clean out the room this past summer, but things happen and stuff gets put off. Someone else needs the space so…it’s time. Anyone want some watercolors? Pencils? Scissors. We have enough for a small army of artists. 10 bags of garbage, 3 boxes of newspapers, bins of dried out paints. At least a carload of supplies still to come home and be given away or go to the High School. Watching my husband going through the artwork left behind, I tear up. The end of an era. Greg taught so many kids in his afterschool classes. Kids who needed a creative outlet that was not too structured, that was not about the end result. He taught the misfits, the quirky ones, the ones who could only concentrate while doodling, the ones with so much talent it could not be contained, the ones with little talent but a need to be around creative souls.

Sigh.

For almost two decades while Greg taught art…Jacob, Olivia, and I worked behind the scenes…true artists need their assistants…we baked and shopped for the openings, we labeled art, we helped set up and we sorted and cleaned up after openings. A family affair that usually ended at the diner for some comfort food, nothing is better when truly exhausted.

Yesterday afternoon, as we emptied the room we were quiet. We respected the process of mourning the end of an era while doing what needed to get done. We threw the last bags into the dumpster, we closed the lights, we picked up Olivia and my mom… and we drove to the diner, where we toasted Greg and his many years of teaching after school classes.

I am thankful for my husband, there is nothing sexier than a man who can make a room full of kids laugh, and create, and feel good about themselves. I am thankful to live in a community that celebrates the arts. I am thankful for the safe, warm, welcoming space our church allowed us to call home for his classes for so many years.

I am thankful.