I visited my "Texas Mom" this week and had an interesting experience with a family friend and neighbor, Jeannee Fletcher who has a cleaning business. She cleans homes for resale. Very frequently, she finds valuables that have been left behind. Some new, some old. There was a large drawing in the corner of the office area where we were having a conversation. She mentioned to us that this large drawing had been sitting there at my Mom's home because they were going to do some research to get more information about it.
This drawing was important to them not just because it was beautiful and so detailed, but because there are significant details that had to have been true: the man in the drawing had on a military uniform; his name was inscribed, and on the back of the frame is another man's name and his social security number!
I was immediately intrigued so I Googled the information in several ways and in 10 minutes, I was able to find out the name of the man in the drawing, his date of birth and death and his mother's name. I was also privileged to find the name of the artist! We called the artist, Bonnie Shields after finding her website, www.wildhorsebooks.com and had a wonderful conversation with her. She had the original drawing and sold reprints at Cracker Barrel. At the time, about 1981, she lived in Spring Field, Tennessee and hired Mr. John H. Wells as a Furrier for her mules. We asked Ms. Shields, why mules?...she said that when she was a child, one day she literally bumped into a mule and fell in love with them. Currently, Bonnie Shields lives in Idaho and has a series of children's books, Jasper the Mule. You can visit this wonderful children's website at www.jasperthemule.com/homepage.html . Ms. Shields is also a Western Humor Card Artist for Leaning Tree.
After speaking with Ms. Shields, I thought about how amazing it is that the previous owners of this home left this picture on the wall. Were they the original owners? Did they forget it, or did they just not find value in it? No matter the answer, there is history here that brought people together, even for a small amount of time. Ms. Shields was able to get recognition of her amazing work and we had an opportunity to benefit from someone who did not know us and took the time to feed our curiosity.
John H. Wells was born on November 14th, 1918. He served in the United States Army in World War II and died on July 5th, 1989. His mother's name was Maria G. Wells who died in 1931. Mr. Wells worked for Ms. Bonnie Shields as a furrier for her mules for years before she moved to Montana. Mr. Wells died on June 5th, 1989.
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