54

growing up in west texas, i learned the art of road tripping. any vacation destination was at least a six hour car trip down a long flat highway accompanied by the smell of oil and blowing tumble weeds. so when my parents discovered santa fe, my brothers and i loved the trip because it was under the six hour limit and there was a time change involved.

my parents bought their first house in santa fe when i was 17. since this is more than half of my life, santa fe feels like home to me, more so than texas which i left when i graduated from college. in the early years we spent holidays and long weekends in santa fe and this required someone to watch the house while we were away.

enter ramona.

ramona started off as a caretaker but over the years has become part of our family. and like all families ours has had its share of good and bad times, joys and sorrows, sickness and health and life and death. and despite all the ups and downs she loves us unconditionally. ramona has had her own share of life struggles, she intimately knows about loss, has battled with her health and had her own share of demons, but she is a survivor and has the biggest heart.

a heart so big that she made 54 of these birds by hand for cooper, my precious husband and i. and i know that with each stitch she not only thought about cooper, but the children she lost. when i saw her in january, i knew that she understood the depth of my grief and pain. and when i received this amazing gift from her yesterday, i knew that she understood how creativity can help heal and mend ones heart. i can only hope that while she was helping to mend my heart, she was mending her own.