Today, August 23rd is not only my birthday, it is also a Remembrance Day for Emily.

It had been 2022, and I visited family in the western part of the state. Emily had been feeling poorly before I left, but I went anyway since she would have my good friend and her first Chicken Dad to watch over her and the others while I was away. I returned near the evening of August 22nd and took her inside and held her close to me and gave her a soothing bath.

For days before I left, there had been times when she hadn’t been able to make it up the chicken ladder to the coop, and so I placed her on the floor of the coop so that she could at least be near the others—including Amelia, her best friend.

Best Advice: Sometimes being close is just as good as being right beside.

When I woke up the next morning, she had left us.

More Best Advice: Remembering will keep those we love alive—if only in our hearts.

As I think back and recall those events, I remember stories I had shared back then of how Emily learned to draw and how I had planned out a “How-to” Art book with her on the cover. But it was never finished or published.

And so I am thinking how now might be the best time to finish this project, share it with our readers, and keep with our principle of having our illustration and writing work FREE when made available online. We do intend to make it available in print for those who feel best with an actual printed volume.

Hint to Readers: Remember the Alligator from the inflatable and the Flip-Flops from Emily’s Feet. You will likely see them again in an upcoming fictional mystery that includes ALL of my chickens once again for an exciting Hardy Hens Mystery about our vacation trip to Uncle Eddie’s Worm Farm! Yes, everything is connected and interlaced with everything else. That is our creative way!

And Now, A Special Treat!

This may be only for myself, but I do hope our readers will appreciate it too. This is an older, never-shared illustration of Emily. It shows her in all of her Irridescent, Gold-Laced Wyandotte beauty!

Just to Lighten Up Things Before We Go

Here’s Emily’s way to “draw” a shark at the beach using cutout shapes instead of drawn shapes:

As Emily told me, “When you draw with lines, start with what is closest to you. When you draw with shapes, start with what is farthest from you.”

Thank you, Readers, for being here with us as Pearl and I travel through the heaviness of today.

John and Pearl (with fond memories of Emily as well as Gracie, Bessie, Blanche, and Amelia)