Sunflower Girl

Isn't it amazing how a "thing" that really means nothing to most people can trigger so many powerful memories and mean so much to you?  I look at this lovely, little Sunflower Girl statue in my garden every day (many times a day) and she always makes me happy.  My affection for sunflowers started when I was small and my mom grew them in the garden.  My memories are fuzzy but I do remember looking up at them and loving watching the birds eat the seeds.  Fast forward nearly 25 years later and a dear friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer.  In an effort to cheer her up I would bring sunflowers to her house because, for some reason, they made me think of her.  She later would call me her "sunflower friend." When she was in remission for one summer, her husband took her to Italy where she photographed and framed a beautiful, sunlit sunflower and gave it to me upon her return.  I still look at that picture every day because I keep it in my bathroom and it comforts me.  Even though my friend lost her battle to cancer, I still smile when I see that photograph because she was full of hope and joy when she took it.  I don't feel heavy and sad forgetting her...I feel happy remembering!  I know I sound like a sentimental girl, but I'm really not.  There are very few "things" that are important to me...a flower vase my great grandmother gave me, a picture of my mom holding me when I was a baby, a picture of my dad and me in our underwear (when I was a toddler), another picture of my brother and sister and I as kids while we were on a trip to Mt. Rushmore...and this statue.