The Crazy Lady of Coronado Beach

 Price:  $1116
Size:  12 x 16
Description:  Sold
OK.  I know that is a crazy title.  It has a story though.  I lost my oldest child, a son who was barely 21 in a freeway accident.  We moved to Coronado Island in San Diego a few months after Ryan’s death.  It was a very difficult time for me.  I was mourning the death of my son.  I walked the beach for hours each day.  After a while I started noticing all the broken sand dollars on the sand.  As a child I spent summers at the beach with my family and we always hunted for sand dollars.  About three months after moving to Coronado I started praying each time before I walked the beach.  I remember sitting in the warm sand and telling God that the day if I found a whole sand dollar as I walked the beach it would be a good day.  I didn’t have good days at that point.  After the prayer I wasn’t really expecting to find a sand dollar as I walked on the wet sand.  That day I was surprised to find a big, whole sand dollar at my feet as I reached the wet sand.  I had walked right to it!  Not only was I surprised that God heard my prayers but he gave me a sign he heard me and showed me he cared in a tangible way.  It was a message of hope.  That day as I walked the shore I found 83 sand dollars.  I found large ones and the tiniest ones I had ever seen.  I asked questions as I walked along and every time I answered them in my mind I was rewarded with a sand dollar at my feet.  It was a magical day!  It was life changing and almost unbelievable.
Since I had been rewarded so openly that day with sand dollars and God’s love for me I decided that if I ever found another sand dollar on my walks I would pick someone out on the beach and give them the sand dollar.  I would let them know that God loves them.  As a result, I started to think of myself as “The Crazy Lady of Coronado Beach.”  It was interesting to see how people responded to a sand dollar gift.  If I had offered them money or candy I am sure I would have gotten different responses.  But when I offered them a shell they were only surprised and happy to receive it.  When I told them God had helped me pick them out from all the other people on the beach to receive it they were all incredibly happy.  Who knows?  Perhaps they had also prayed that day that God would let them know they weren’t forgotten.
The painting includes one of the sand dollars I found on the beach.  The waves are made with layers of resin to give them a feeling or real depth.  There is also a rock I found on the beach in the water.  That was such an interesting time in my life.  I am grateful the painting found a special home with a collector that understands its spiritual meaning.