ARTfix

Mom

2008-12-15T23:35:00.010-06:00

Some things can't be fixed. Some things are perfect. Some things are simply beyond our reach. Mom, is now both perfect - and beyond our reach. But for 93 + years she was eminently reachable - touchable, the most accessible person, especially if you wanted a hug - or a chocolate - or comfort. I want to take a bit of time and blog-space to share some photos and thoughts and invite you to add your comments.

The photo above was taken by Tony about three years ago. The next few pictures were taken by Maren at the memorial service.

Some thoughts for Mom's memorial service:

For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Is. 55: 12)

“Zina’s here! Zina’s here!

This is my mom’s day. Her memorial service. Her friends and family have gathered to “remember” her. I would like to share some things about my mom that I will always remember and appreciate.

My mom probably never expected to live as long as she did. She had some heart problems as a child, then a bad concussion from a bicycle accident that gave her headaches for the next 80+ years. After gymnasium, or high school, when she went to Germany for nursing school, she got TB, and had to put off school to regain her health. From my childhood, I remember her suffering through a tough miscarriage and later pneumonia. We always worried about her health.

Her life was pretty tough. Growing up with religious persecution. Losing everything in the war, starting over in a new country that wasn’t really sure it wanted more “displaced persons”. Never really having much financially. Working nights, then up all day helping others with translating. Having two kids…a husband….

And her internal life was often hard as well. Mom was sensitive. I remember her sad times and her times of disappointment, fear and loss. She worried. Imagine having a son in Viet Nam and a daughter in college in the late 60’s early 70’s. Things to worry about!

But what was special about mom was that she used all of these hard events to grow a big heart. I think the fancy word for that is empathy. More than sympathy, where we feel sorry for someone, empathy enters into the other’s situation and feels with them. Mom was able to reach into other people’s lives and minister to them – to us – because she “knew how it feels”. I think it was mom’s experience of prejudice that made her aware of its destructive force. It was her pains and losses that didn’t allow her to minimize our hurts. She saw good people suffer for the sins of others. She understood loneliness. She understood why people made bad choices. She knew what it was to have NOTHING.

So, mom was probably the first person in U.S. history to make a black “Raggedy Ann” doll for the daughter of a co-worker. (That was at least 10 years before Barbie came out in ethnic flavors!) She taught her children to eat with chopsticks. Every Sunday she filled the house with guests, especially those with nowhere else to go. She took in our friends, even allowing them to live in our home. She gave away her food, clothing and money. She gave her time and energy. And she gave cookies to the neighbor kids. Mom would do everything in her power to help as many people as she could. And of course she prayed.

For me, mom was amazing because despite her own personal standards, she never looked down on another person. Instead she looked for what she could do to help them. As her daughter, I benefited more than anyone from my mom’s help, I can’t even begin to list how many times mom helped me. But I carry with me a profound appreciation that my mom helped me learn to value others. To enter into other’s lives as a positive encouraging person. Mom showed me how, despite poor health, or headaches, or modest finances, not to judge or criticize, but to do the “big 4” give, love, feed people and pray.

biography

Zina was born in 1915 in Poland to Paul and Olga Rucki. Paul was a railroad engineer, who took the opportunities of travel to preach the Gospel of Jesus everywhere he went, starting and encouraging small churches. Olga was his faithful support, a gifted homemaker who stretched his small income to care for many. Zina absorbed both her parents passions growing up in their home in Kovel, Poland. She was also very adept at learning languages. In her later years she used this talent to help other European immigrants, translate documents for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, tutor individuals in the Polish, Russian and German languages, and translate for visiting farmers from Russia and the Ukraine.

After her schooling in Poland she worked in Germany at a Christian mission. After World War II broke out, because of her Red Cross Nurses training in Poland, she served as a Red Cross nurse at a Lutheran Hospital in Germany. When it became evident that Russia would take power over Poland, she aided her parents and younger sister to flee Poland and brought them to safety in the British sector after the war. She met her husband Francisczek (Frank) in a displaced persons camp. After three years in a series of displaced person’s camps, they and their 18 month old son, Aleksander, emigrated to the United States in 1949. They were sponsored by Edward and Francis Nelson of Clover Township, near Hinckley, Minnesota, with whom they lived for a period of time. Amber joined the family in 1950.

Zina was known for her singing voice, and was asked to move to Chicago to take part in a radio ministry to Slavic people in South America over HCJB Radio in Quito, Ecuador. She and her family lived there for several years, eventually returning to Minnesota and settling in Minneapolis. There, Zina used her nursing skills as a nursing assistant at Swedish Hospital/ Metropolitan Medical Center, retiring at 62, to care for her husband.

Frank died in March of 1984, and she moved to Eagle Grove in 1990 after Amber, Dave and Valerie moved to the area. She enjoyed church and community life in Eagle Grove until her eyesight began to limit her activities, then decided in 2000 to join the Joplin family in Storm Lake. In 2007, Zina moved back to the Eagle Grove area to be near Alex and Diane. She was residing at the Rotary Ann home and died there peacefully at the age of 93 on December 9, 2008. Diane had been reading to her from the 23^rd Psalm when she took her last breaths.

my baby's birthday

2007-01-25T10:28:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Val! You are my precious daughter and I am grateful for the gift of you every day!

Tumtum

2007-01-16T15:29:00.000-06:00

evergreen sentinels guard my untrod path through sunshine and shadow

9 inches of snow fell last Wednesday at "the rock" leaving a winter wonderland version for us to enjoy on our almost daily walks. The first walk after the snowfall was especially magical, as the fading sun cast it's golden light on the rock tips and distant trees. The cold preserved the snow for a Sunday cross country skiiing adventure with Val and friends.

Bob made lots of progress on the house, with mom's room and bathroom nearing completion. Amber painted the ceilings and finished up "her" room. Now, back in Iowa, Amber is supposed to finish up getting rid of "stuff". Bob stayed in Washington to get a bit more done on his projects before heading east to help out.

cross country

2007-01-04T22:02:00.000-06:00

and I followed the solitatary trail until it came to an end

2007 started with fresh snow and a chance to engage in a brief but delightful cross country skiiing experience! I took just a few photos, focusing more on the beauty of the sun on snow, water and ice. Feeling very alone in the quiet, this little animal trail caught my attention, reminding me visually that solitary paths do not go on forever.

Cross country is also an apt descriptor for this new phase in my life. I fly to Spokane Saturday, starting the next phase of our move to Washington state. I'll be working with Bob to make sure mom's room is ready, then back here to finally pack up and move out. Lots of work! Lots of hopes!

in our lifetime

2006-12-31T17:08:00.000-06:00

hell feeezes over only to find many waters cannot quench love

This photo of Val and Tony taken shortly before their wedding, was on the camera's memory card when I downloaded the first of the geese pictures, so I claim it as mine! I intended to transfer a very small image and have it floating under the ice when I did an early "black and white" ice assignment, but got this close-up composition. Being at a loss for words, I quickly typed in two cliches, only to discover they contained the requisite 17 syllables for the Ginsberg Sentence part of the assignment. (Some things just go together!)

On this last day of 2006, I would like to celebrate the blessings of all couples who found love that endured to the end of this year. The miracle of love actually is a miracle of life, as I have been very aware this holiday season, experiencing the empty spaces of lost love in my life. Enjoy what you have, treasure it, the durability is as important as the magic!
And may the blessings of love capture us anew in 2007!

the shining moment

2006-12-29T20:46:00.000-06:00

transparently clinging, I extend this moment of freedom to shine

As the sun warmed and melted the ice, leaves and rocks were freed from their temporary prisons, yet this leaf appeared to hold on. Preferring it's moment in the sun, to the free-fall into waiting water and rocks.

This second Ginsberg sentence took me a week to figure out. The photo was simple with the rich textures and colors of water ice and stone, but how to share that feeling of clinging to the shining moment? Especially in the face of the cold wet (at best) future. Fortunately we rarely see our futures as clearly. Still would we be wise to pause and reflect the light that comes our way?

frozen in memory

2006-12-22T19:35:00.000-06:00

strangely this lifeless husk shines anew in shattered crystal memory

My personal coach and artistic critic, Val, suggests that I use the Ginsberg Sentence to sharpen my writing. I combine this 17 syllable sentence with another (failed) attempt at a black and white photo.

Memory is a fact of nature. Correction: "selective memory" is a fact of nature. Fossils tease us with exciting bits of memory, obscuring more than they reveal. This leaf, encased in ice, shining again in winter, as it shone in the fall sun, showcases the best of the past season. Yet most of the leaves have not been saved, they are crumbled, buried, on their way to compost, as this leaf will be when the ice gives up it's hold.

Still we treasure the beauty, save up the golden moments, until we, too, give up our hold.

the fires of the fall

2006-12-20T15:33:00.000-06:00

as the ice layers form, they think to put out the fires of the fall

I tried to do my assignment. Went back to the ice image and started working in black and white. Then I just had to see what happend if I layered the ice image on top of this wonderful photo of shore fires created by taking a long exposure of Frank Starr Park during an electrical storm the night Jennifer and Charlie got married.

2006-12-19T21:12:00.000-06:00

I could be anywhere. I choose this place, these companions

Flocks of geese seem to me the epitome of freedom, loudly declaring their independence as they fly into open spaces. So...why are they here? Storm Lake in December? Is it because they were born here? Because their leader settled here? Are they stuck? Are they actually here by any choice at all? It that what all the chatter is about?

Why am I here? How long will I stay?

THE SONG OF THE GEESE

2006-12-17T16:51:00.000-06:00

their song was glorious

Today I went hunting for geese to shoot with the "good" camera. I walked purposefully west along the lakeshore where a small gaggle had been yesterday. No luck. Returning home, I dropped off the camera, grabbed another scarf against the wind and walked east along the lake. A mile later I saw the first 100. But I carried on, around the curve, and there they were, singing to the sky at least 300 of them.

As you may remind me, "Silly goose, don't you know they always show up when you leave the camera at home?"

Race back home, return this time in the car... to the park and... the song of the geese....so loud it holds one in place, with no thought to the work at hand.

This one's for you, Mr. H. The same lake background layer as the image two posts below, with the geese isolated and superimposed.

ice dreams

2006-12-17T08:03:00.000-06:00

ice dreams in the winter sun with no fear of melting

The ice series started one cold Sunday in December with three photos along the shore of Storm Lake. The cold and wind had created large ice blocks and thrust them up out of the water, in a jumble along the edge of the lake. This image uses layers to show the transparencies of color, and the brightness and darkness of the ice shining in the sun.

Does ice not understand the danger of melting in the sun? Or does it choose to spend itself on the warmth and beauty?

and so it begins

2006-12-16T19:28:00.000-06:00

When the sky lights my day...hope colors my dreams

How long do we contemplate simple changes? I contemplate for years, I guess. Then make bold sweeping changes in an instant, it seems, but the contemplation makes the change possible.

This blog is to share my artwork. I need to hear from you, dear reader, if you have comments or suggestions. Any response is helpful, but I'm really hoping for feedback to take what I consider to be my "sappy" artwork and try for something meaningful.