10/4/11 In Loving Memory

This beautiful drawing was lovingly made by Nikoline, a pop up birthday card to my oldest.

Our friends in Costa Rica have suffered an unimaginable loss. On Thursday, September 29, one of their beautiful young daughters, Nikoline, died in a tragic accident.

Nikoline loved her family and the life they shared. She loved her horses and goats and each one of the jardinera hens and roosters and the countless chicks which were named upon hatching. Nikoline grew up pushing the family dog around in a doll stroller and cleverly figuring ways for him to haul sticks for the cook fire. She delighted in tea parties with her sisters and dressing her little brothers for after supper theatrical productions. She savored every moment she had with her grandparents learning new tricks in the kitchen, trying new artistic techniques, playing cards and taking long walks through the cloudy hills. Nikoline was just a girl, but even at her tender age, her being was defined, her path clear.

Nikoline was an artist. While she dabbled in dance and song, her gift was in the creation of beautiful images and stories. It is a loss shared by the whole world that she was not able to spend decades producing drawings and paintings, imagining clever narratives. Even at her tender age, Nikoline had a distinct artistic style. Her countless drawings and paintings told the story of her beautiful life. Vivid colors and confident lines captured horses and chickens and tree lined hillsides filled with flowers and songbirds. Nikoline loved life and she brought joy with her where ever she went.

All of her treasures have been packed in boxes. Little china tea sets and figurines, hair clips and necklaces, birthday cards and family photographs, school books and sheet music, fancy dresses and favorite jeans, everything packed and ready to join her family again, where ever that may be. Soon, sorrow will drain and the pure essence of joy that always radiated from Nikoline will fill the hollows of everyone who had the privilege of knowing her. That beauty will make us all stand taller and more courageous, never forgetting to live each day to the fullest and each action we make, with great care.