Honoring our Parents
January 25 would have been my mother’s 89th birthday: Charlotte Elizabeth Little Donigi born in 1933.
I greatly resemble my mother and more so, adopted many of her passions. From Thanksgiving 2018 to Thanksgiving 2020, both my parents passed almost exactly two years apart, missing their 65th wedding anniversary by just six weeks.
I’ve learned SO MANY lessons from this natural phenomenon. It is important to accept their passing as part of the circle of life, however, I particularly reminisce on holidays and their birthdays and so wish we had more.
Mom was incredibly passionate about Art that, from my earliest memories, she would take us to every gallery and every museum in proximity to NYC that she could. Our home was filled with books loaned from the library on artists of all eras. I laugh to think I started learning Art History on the potty!
How I loved it. I dreamed of being left accidentally in the museum overnight just to have private time with the exhibits. I dreamed of having my own gallery. Many years later, when I was 34 years old, that dream came true.
Mom cried the day she and Dad drove from NY to Virginia to visit my first gallery. I had founded an art consultancy as an art resource to the design trade years earlier, but the demands of the business eventually called for exhibition space and commercial offices.
My first gallery was born very much thanks to Mom.
When I met a brilliant artist in 1992, among hundreds of others I worked with, Mom immediately blessed the relationship. On a call from DC to NY, I shared that I had met an outstanding painter named Roland Richardson from Saint Martin.
Mom put me on hold, then returned to the call saying, “Yes, I remember Roland. What a nice young man he is!” She had kept his card from a visit to St. Martin 25 years earlier when they talked for hours in his first studio he constructed solo, and my parents purchased a hand-pulled serigraph from my future husband.
When they reunited a few years later, they talked endlessly like old friends truly till the time my parents passed. When our baby Radiance was born, Mom and Dad loved her dearly.
A touching part of this story was that Mom and Dad had just about everything they needed but when it came time to celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries, some of their favorite gifts were Roland’s creations.
Today we celebrate their lives and offer a very special gift certificate for birthdays and anniversaries for our wonderful “extended family” who may be faced with a similar dilemma to choose a very meaningful gift.
If your parents or grandparents adore Roland’s artwork, we would be delighted to help them choose something new and magnificent to bring joy to their home and rejuvenate their spirits.
As our gift to you, we always add 25% value to your gift certificate. Therefore if you dedicate $400, their certificate will be $500; if you choose $800, their certificate will be worth $1000. Thereafter we are delighted to help them select their favorite artwork!
If you discover a beautiful artwork that you would like to offer as their gift, please reach out to us and we will most certainly offer you a family price for this precious offering.
I realized with my parent’s passing how each and every day is really a celebration. However, we might help you celebrate with your family would be an honor!