My cousin died at a young age. She was an artist and had given everyone in the family a piece of art she did, a preying mantis. An insect, and a creepy one at that. She gave it to me in 1979. Somehow, somewhere, I ditched the bug.
Then she died, and I regretted giving away her gift for years. The good news is that when my grandmother died, my mom took and kept her copy of the preying mantis. Hers was in color. Mine was in black and white. I told my mom that I regretted getting rid of my cousin’s bug art, and she gifted me my grandma’s colored copy.
But years later, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I looked all over both of my stuffed houses and came up empty. That was until I opened up my living room armoire and discovered a bunch of framed art that I had stashed at least eight years ago when my sister moved in with me.
The local Victorian museum is interested in two of the pieces (I sent photos in an email), and I will deliver them this week. Hurray! Two large items out of my house.
The armoire has dark walnut wood inside, so it was hard to see, but I kept pulling stuff out. Lo and behold, there it was, the preying mantis. I leaned it up against the TV table and looked at it for a few days. Why hadn’t my cousin sketched a beautiful butterfly or a lovely lady bug? Why a preying mantis?
Then I got a crazy idea. I hung it in my bathroom since the mint walls are the same color as the background of the insect art. How weird to have it in the bathroom! But you know, I’d been looking for it for a while and now that I’ve found it, I need to see it.
I am sure that I will relocate it to another wall somewhere someday, but for now, the preying mantis lives in the hall bathroom, in honor of my cousin who died way too young.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 