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That was the headline the local newspaper ran the day after our dear old summer cottage slid
into the sea with a mighty crash off the California coast just north of La Jolla.
The cottage had been in our family for four generations, and my parents had given it to me
and my husband, Ben, as a wedding gift almost two years ago. We hadn’t had time to stay in
the cottage for any extended periods of time yet as we both worked in San Diego in high
pressure jobs, but we had been spending about one weekend a month there to work on the place.
We had been slowly modernizing and refurbishing the small three-room brown clapboard cottage
which hadn’t been improved since my grandparents had put in electricity some years before I was
born.
We had just about put the place in as good order as our limited budget would allow, and had
moved some of our personal belongings there with the plan that it would become our getaway
retreat and home-away-from home.
Among the memorabilia we had displayed on the mantelpiece of the small fireplace were my husband’s
most treasured belongings – his golf trophies. He had played in college and was an outstanding
golfer and had once entertained dreams of turning pro and going on the circuit. His career took
him in another direction however, and he no longer got a chance to play very often. He loved
those trophies, though, and mourned their loss in the mudslide.
Our second anniversary was coming up and I was trying to think of a special 2nd anniversary gift
for Ben, when a friend of mine gave me a great suggestion. He knew of an Internet gallery that
could make an original painting out of any photograph, new or old. A painting would make a
wonderful second year anniversary present.
I had access to some of Ben’s old photo albums from college and when he had lived in a bachelor
apartment in San Francisco and a few of them showed Ben posing proudly in front of his display of
golf trophies. So I got my hands on two photos which together showed the entire trophy collection
and sent them to the site www.PaintYourLife.com with a request to create a large oil painting of
Ben standing in front of all the trophies.
I was able to correspond with the site and explain what I wanted and they even let me view the
finished painting and approve it before they shipped it. The whole process was so easy, and it
cost a lot less that I ever would have imagined.
When I gave Ben his very special second anniversary gift he was surprised, amazed, touched, and
delighted. We hung the oil painting in our study and he can’t stop going all the time to take
another look at it. It’s clear that it will mean a lot to him always.
This coming summer Ben is going to take up golf again…and we’re renting a cottage in the mountains.
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