CV reunion

Today the full circle closed and what occurred thirty-five years ago came to a good conclusion. It began in Williston in the mid-seventies when Mr Thomas Jones, then a chiropractor in Williston, asked if I would paint him a portrait of his father in Trenton for his office. We arranged to drive over one afternoon and take some photographs from which I could work from. Tom, a troubled soul, told me of hardship and tough times as we drove from Williston. Arriving at the old home place, I was somewhat intimidated and not knowing what to expect. I tried to walk about without intrusion and take photographs. We got Mr CV to pull the new Ford Tractor out from the barn. I only took three photographs. Quite bold as I usually took many. I did not want to intrude. Mr CV immediately after the posing disappeared back into the rambling old house with the dog trot separating the eating from the sleeping. I sensed a tension in Tom and his parents and we soon left.
I got busy on the painting while at Florida Southern in college. In the meantime, the sad news came that Tom had been sent to prison. He was convicted of hiring a hit man to have his wife Ellie killed. The hit man he contacted was an informant. With his business closed, the painting went in storage. Further sorrow ensued when several years later, after being released from prison, Tom offered two black men a ride. They got in, beat him to death and stole his truck, leaving him on a country road. And so the painting sat in the shed, under the bed and other places.
It was just last week that Melissa Shelton Lord, who once lived in Trenton, and manages the You know your are from Trenton when...page, posted one of my photographs from the Jones farm. She messaged me that Mr Jones grandson Jamie was inquiring about the photograph and would like a copy. I messaged him and said I would make him a copy, plus I had a painting he may be interested in. We messaged back and forth on Facebook and arranged to meet today at the Gallery. Meantime, I got the painting down from the shed and touched up the cracks and fades, resigning the painting, putting a coat of varnish on it.
It looked almost new, but with the cracks adding character.
Around 9 today Jamie and his wife arrived at the gallery and we exchanged the prints, nearly 30, and the painting. We had a good visit, with him telling me stories of the farm, Mr CV, how he lost his fingers on the left hand, of driving down to Shands in Gainesville with the fingers after touching an electrical wire in the field, etc. It was a good end to the painting, which will now be framed properly and hung in a place of love.
A boy of around ten when the painting was made.
Glad it ended well.