Orleans

I am getting ready to send out a newsletter announcing the closing of our Orleans gallery. Although I don't work there very often anymore, I still feel a strong connection to that particular spot on our planet and cannot believe that the end of this era has come.

I will, of course, have to give my key back. It was the first copy made and is printed with #1. I don't know why, but I always felt it was quite an honor to be the keeper of the #1 key.

When I think about that gallery, I think about how everything was so shiny and new after the renovation. I try to remember what it looked like when there were still concrete floors with drains in the center, but it's a stretch. I remember Audrey walking around with floor samples and paint swatches for months.

They were finishing the work while we were moving in. We put down paper walkways so we wouldn't scratch those beautiful cherry floors. We started on displays in the front, as the flooring people worked their way out the back door. We got the last display put together just in time for our gala reopening.

One of the contractors gave us a set of plastic bowling pins to use in the painting gallery.

I was managing the gallery when I got engaged. And married. My first baby went to work with me. Things grow. Things change. Things close.

But the love that goes into things? And the passion that fueled the initial idea? That still lingers, waiting to light on the next page of the story.