A Good Student Passes Away

Yellow Daylilies - Kaleidoscopic Creation by Trina Stephenson

Recently, I sent out my bi-monthly newsletter with news about workshops, shows and travels.  I always get some nice notes in return, usually from students and collectors with some wonderful news of their own.  This week, however, I received a sad note.  It was from the husband of a student, who also happened to be a collector.  She passed away just after receiving my newsletter and after a two-year battle with cancer.  One of her final wishes was for him to contact me and to let me know she valued my guidance and dedication.

She was young, maybe in her 50s.   Like many of my students, she was an accomplished professional in an unrelated field but enjoyed an avocation that allowed her to exercise her creativity in other ways. A brilliant pharmacologist, she was also an excellent painter.  She pursued her art with the same love and energy that she pursued her career as a scientist. 

It's important to know that life is sometimes short and also to understand that you should follow as many dreams as you can.  If you want to be an artist in addition to being a scientist (or accountant or homemaker), then by all means, go for it.  You will be a more fulfilled person because of it.  And when your last day comes, you can be satisfied with the knowledge that you left no dream unchased.