My sister Carolyn's birthday is today. She lives in New Orleans with her un-husband, David. When my son Ellis was learning to talk several years ago, he managed to say something that sounded like "Kittee" as he tried to pronounce her name. So she became "Aunt Kittee" and liked the name so much that she is just Kittee to her friends nowadays. David is supposedly to be called Dazee as well. Kittee and Dazee.
When Helen and I got married 11 years ago, Carolyn made this beautiful drawing for us. We have it hanging on the wall next to our bed. There's a lovely video of Carolyn explaining the picture and how she made it squirreled away upstairs. I don't think I could do justice to it, but I can mention a few things: The three central figures are Whirling Dervishes. The small photos inside the stars are Helen and me as kids. The inscription around the outside says:
This was drawn for Brian and Helen, my brother and sister, to commemorate their wedding. The ninth day of April, in the year nineteen hundred ninety four. May your lives be filled with love. Carolyn Berns.
The small blue inscription at the top says:
The heavens in glad surprise
Stand still to behold me spin
I think that's quite lovely. You can find more of the poem here: clicky
I didn't want to take the drawing out of its frame, so that's me holding the camera that you can see faintly reflected near the bottom of the photo.