I chose this dress as a nod to one of my most favorite people in the whole wide world: my BELOVED Grandpa Ole Olson. He died when I was only 8 years old, but his big love made up for the too little years. He was from the Lofoten Islands in Norway and then moved to Billings, Montana, where he and my dearest Grandma Lillie (who I called “Cookie Grandma,” because she would bake cookies and caramel rolls when they visited) raised my dad and his sister. Ole tuned pianos for a living but the violin was his primary instrument. If you look closely at this green dress (made by Gudrun Sjoden of course!) you will see violins in the pattern!
I just got his old advertising sign framed and it hangs nearby as I am writing to you, from my desk in the corner of our kitchen.
And here are these dearest ones! I thank the Heavens for sharing these stars with me and maybe someday I’ll be lucky enough and he will play his violin for me and I will dance and sing.
Shared with great thanksgiving for how you too send love into the world. Sometimes we underestimate our impact, thinking we have only spent a short time with someone or didn’t say anything special. Our hearts are knit together powerfully and sometimes even the briefest of gazes, even if wordless, can alter something quite important in another.
Thank you for being here
xox,
Rachel
