Just before Christmas-time, my bestfriend from childhood passed away. He was 34 years old (same age as me). We grew up down the street from one another. We influenced each other in so many ways. We made a game out of everything. We perpetually challenged and inspired one another. We just had an awesome friendship. We played together almost everyday until our mid-teens when his family moved out of state. But even after that our families still spent all of our holidays together. We went on so many amazing trips and had so many good times. This is the closest person to me who has ever passed during my lifetime. Needless to say, I've had a lot of trouble dealing with it. My emotions are so out of control. Weeks, nearly a month later, I still just don't feel like myself. I have an incredible base of friends who have been supporting me through this crazy period and I am so thankful for that, but there is only so much they can do for me. I know the rest of this on me and I just need to get through it in my own way, on my own time.
Mainly, I've just been trying to focus on the one thing I know I am absolutely positively good at - WORK. However, when I woke up this morning, I was honestly wondering why I even bother. Why do I do this? Why do I care so much about philately? Why or who even cares about postage stamps in 2013...and so on? And then I checked my e-mail and received this most extraordinary message from one of my etsy customers.
It went as follows, "My daughter's name is E.... W... C..., and ever since she was in utero we've called her the Norge. so when I saw these stamps, I was delighted. I made this collage for my husband last spring and gave it to him for his birthday. He was stunned and immediately tweaked a rule our house: in case of a fire, I'll grab the children and he'll grab the collage. Little bit amazing.
The stamps are stuck with double-sided tape to a piece of accounting paper from Goodwill. Very simple, though I was sweating bullets when assembling it. It hangs above our bed.
So glad you had these stamps. Your shop is wonderful."
Below are images of the framed collage made by my customer.
And now I know exactly why I do what I do and I won't stop.
