May's Mail Club monthly letter
DEEEEEEEEAR DIARY,
…kidding, mostly. HI MAIL CLUB PARTY PEOPLE!
How are we all doing? Good? Great? Fantastic?! I am so happy you’re here, whether it’s your first month (welcome!) or you’re a honorary OpalBONER (I’m still trying to make that happen- UGH, whatever- just go with it). As of right now this mail club is at 650 members! I truly don’t have the words. Thank you a million times for all of your support and kind words. I know the last few letters have been pretty unhinged, light hearted, and meant to make you laugh/clutch your pearls. But in this months letter we are pivoting pretty hard in the opposite direction. I am going to tell you the back story behind the hummingbird print from this month as it turned out to accidentally be the most meaningful art piece I’ve done in a very long time… maybe ever? *GASP* Something sentimental?! YEEEEE-uck! ◡̈
You’ve been warned, and I apologize for the potential whip lash. This story doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending, truthfully, it’s quite tragic. But, there can be beauty in tragedy and I hope that maybe some of you who have had similar life experiences can find comfort in it too. I went back and forth about whether or not to share this but sending out this months mail club didn’t feel honest or complete without it. I am just going for it because this is my letter and my club and were all just on a dumb floating rock anyways…
This story takes place in the year 2001. Ahh, what a time to be alive! I was 9, had big ol’ buck teeth that gave SpongeBob a run for his money, a deep love for Shania Twain, and a hamster named Cupie who would sit shot gun in my electric barbie car for hours. Don’t even start with me!
It was not hamster abuse, HE LOVED IT. OKAY?!
Anyways, before we go any further, I have to introduce you to someone very, very important to me. My first best friend, my entire universe, my home. I just called her Mom, but everyone else called her Wendy. ◡̈
Wendy was the type of person that genuinely made your day brighter just by simply existing. She was hilarious without even knowing it. She was the type of mom that would stay up all night setting up an entire barbie village in our living room for me to wake up to just because she wanted to see me smile. And then turn around spend hours with me playing on the floor, creating a little world of our own in that very village. I remember her making all of the barbies talk in weird voices.
She was the essence of creativity would loved an adventure: scrapbooking, sand art, sewing, photography, graphic design, party planning and anything else she could get her hands on, really. I can confidently say that being raised in that environment is absolutely the why I chose the creative path in life that I did and she is the entire reason for that. Wendy wasn’t just a single mom, she was also a daughter, a sister, a friend to many, and a second mom to every single one of my friends growing up. I can say that, without a doubt, to know her was to love her.
Although it did not define who she was, Wendy also had breast cancer. She was first diagnosed when I was two and only given months to live. After a double mastectomy, months of chemo, and radiation… She beat it, against all odds- because she was a BADASS and strong as hell! Ultimately, the cancer unfortunately came back ten years later. After another long battle she did pass away when I was 14. Some lights are just too bright for this earth, I guess. My mom was truly a once in a lifetime kind of person and I miss her immensely. What a privilege it is to have been loved by someone who is worth missing forever, though.
…Am I ugly crying right now? Oh, you betchaaaaa! Snot bubbles and all. Grief is like that sometimes, even twenty years later. It is love that has no where to go. You see, grief never actually goes away. It just changes with the years and shows up out of left field -always in the most inopportune times- always with a vengeance.
Alright, alright…that’s enough of that. Now that you’ve been properly introduced to my mom, let’s circle back to the (happier) hummingbird story!
Our downstairs apartment had a bush directly outside of the front door that sat under the stairs leading to the upstairs apartment. One morning on the way to school, my mom (who was the opposite of a morning person, lol) enthusiastically ran back inside and yelled for me to come out right away! Weirded out by her before-noon-excitement, I quickly followed her outside. There was a hummingbird who had created a nest in our bush! My mom was practically jumping up and down, hands clasped, eyes twinkling like Dumbledore (dramione girls UNITE!). And there were two eggs! She immediately got her camera and took hundred of pictures. Yes, I was most certainly late to school that day.
A few weeks (maybe? Idk time was weird, I was 9…) and 50,000 rolls of film later, the nest was still there but now occupied by the mom hummingbird and her two babies! Mom my was ECSTATIC. However, one morning we noticed that the babies were crying and the mom was nowhere to be found. We thought maybe she would be back soon, but by the time I got picked up from school my mom was distraught. The hummingbird mom still hadn’t returned. While I was gone, like freaking Snow White, Wendy took matters into her own hands and once again stepped into the roll of a mom. Only this time it was for baby birds, not my friends. Baby hummingbirds can starve within an hour, their metabolism is extremely fast. She hand fed them with a dropper every 30 minutes, I’m not kidding, this went on for a few days until she contacted some type of bird rescue for help (the details are a bit murky, because I, again, was 9).
The babies were safe and life went on, however on Christmas morning that year, I had a surprise in my stocking. My mom had developed all of her photos of the hummingbirds and made a cute little book for me with a silly story that she hand wrote equipped with all of her funny little not-so-great drawings and corny jokes that I loved. I’ve always wanted to re-write and illustrate the hummingbird book in her honor. So perhaps this was an accidental step in that direction. No, this isn’t some long drawn out children’s book announcement, but, also… I mean, WHO KNOWS! Who needs to sleep anyhow?! I do truly feel closest to my Mom when I am creating and I know she would have absolutely loved this mail club. I am my mother’s daughter and for that I am proud.
That’s all for now. I hope you all had a nice mothers day and enjoyed this months mail club. ◡̈
xoxo, Jes
p.s. Next month I will back to our regular scheduled letter
full of embarrassment, debauchery and chaos.
p.s.s. If you’re lucky enough to still have your mom,
call her right now and tell her you love her!
p.s.s.s. If, like me, you also have a membership to the no mom’s club… you can just call me and profess your love for me instead. Hahahaha, jk, jk. Unless… no, no. That’d be weird… right?
