Anne Curran

Kindred Spirit

When Joan Coleman, my father's second cousin shifts into a retirement village in Auckland, she decides to clear away some of her paintings. She has started to paint late in life. Feeling spoiled I choose two of her paintings, purchase frames for them, and display them in my home. A year or so later I learn that Joan has died. By then we have written to each other twice.

I am summoned to my Auntie's place just before Christmas to choose some of her belongings. I choose her paintings. Over Christmas and New Year I hang Joan's paintings of roses in my spare room and I show them to a sister when she comes to visit.

afternoon sun
warms two sisters
wild rose English rose

When my Aunt gave me Joan's paintings, she said to me, 'I think that this would have made her smile'.