Finding The Lost Painting

December 4, 2021

Reflections, Day 54

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”
― Albert Camus

In the late 1980s, my brother Tom gave me a beautiful painting. Not only was the painting totally captivating, but it was framed in old oak, matted professionally, and glassed. I was captivated by the painting which depicted a view from a mountaintop and was actually a multi-level landscape.

At the bottom of the painting, on the mat, in Tom’s inimitable handwriting was inscribed,

“I turned my head for it had whispered my name”—Tom Schulz, 1977

I moved around a bit those days, but I always took that picture with me.

In September of 2012, I knew I was seriously ill but I didn’t understand just how bad off I really was until the doctor took me off in private and said, “Mr. Schulz, I just want to tell you that it would be wise for you to have your affairs in order before the operation. It does not look totally promising.”

So I had a will drawn up, gave Dekie power of attorney, and took care of other things. One of the other things was to put the painting in a safe place where it would not get ruined or broken. Needless to say, I lived through the hospital ordeal, and began learning to live again. The painting slipped from my mind. I never lost the memory of the painting, but I had pushed it to the back of my mind. Have you ever put something somewhere special so that you wouldn’t lose it, and then forgotten where you put it? Yeah, me too.

Not long ago, brother Tom published something on social media that said,

“I turned, for it had called my name.”

And that brought the painting back up from the basement of my memory.

Yesterday, I looked for the painting but it wasn’t where I thought it would be. I was about to go look somewhere else when I stopped, I turned, for it had whispered my name. There it was, almost ten years later, carefully wrapped but a bit dusty and the matting was a bit moldy, but we’ll fix that. It was like finding an old friend.

The actual inscription reads,

“I turned my head for it had whispered my name”—Tom Schulz, 1977

—john schulz