I have shared in previous blogs how I dreamed of building an art studio on Camano Island that would be a place where I could showcase my family’s legacy of art and support my dad and mom in their golden years by selling their art.
My value of caring for and supporting my parents came, I am sure, from watching mom and dad care for their parents and other friends in need. I’d watched dad be a support to his parents, seen my mom serve as one of the chief caregivers for her mother for over 15 years. Caring for my parents is deeply ingrained in me.
Thus a big part of vision for Sunnyshore Studio was to help my parents out financially through providing a venue to show and sell their art. I had a plan for the Studio. In July of 2014 I had even met with a bank lender and worked on a preliminary mortgage. But I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger to build the studio.
And then on January 8th, 2015, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.
That was a game changer for me.
Besides crying a lot, the first thing I did was to buy tickets to be with mom and dad as they walked through the fears and stresses of the diagnosis. I flew to Seattle on January 10th and spent a long weekend with mom and dad.
It was so good to be with them. To talk. To cry. To walk on the beach.
Before I left for Seattle, I had talked to my wife Jenny about my desire to make the studio happen. She had been super supportive. So when I was on Camano mom and I took a trip to County offices and filed the Water Availability Verification form.
Mom’s cancer diagnosis helped me pull the trigger on my dream of an art studio that would be a support and celebration of mom and dad’s art. I am expecting that we will break ground on the Studio in July of 2015, have it completed for a Christmas show, and have it open on the Camano Island “Mother’s Day Art Tour” in 2016.
To be able to support mom through showing and celebrating her art would be a dream come true!