When my cousin Lyn came to visit me in Chadds Ford in 1993, it was a very special time. We hadn't seen one another for many years. Jarrod, when looking for his biological father, had gone to the UK and stayed with Lyn and her family, who it turned out were living in a place called Crickhowell in Wales.
A picture of Lyn attending a workshop Jane Hart and I gave.
By this time, McClure realised that I would definitely be returning. Upset that we would have to part ways, we decided to take a trip together to the UK, with a possible view of our moving back and making a new life there.
During our trip, we visited Crickhowell, which I loved from first sight. We then went onto another of my favourite places, at Veryan-in-Roseland, close to Turo in Cornwall. We also spent three days in Paris with Claudia.
There was no question that McClure loved Crickhowell and Cornwall, but his life was clearly based in the States, and so it was with sadness that we both accepted and recognised that it was time to move forward on our different paths.
When we returned to the States, the 'preparation for departure' phase began.
My friend Bonnie Halsey Dutton allowed me to use her garage in West Chester for a sale of my studio paraphanalia. It was advertised to begin at 8 a.m. - by 9.30 everything had been sold. The rest of my things were given to good friends and to my son Jarrod, who by that time had his own flat. I gave my big studio easel to Bonnie. That easel is now in her studio in Spearfish S. Dakota.
I sold 'the studio' in West Chester (a very traulmatic time) which cleared any debt I had.
Then came one of the hardest things. My three studio cats who had been with me since 1988, Tushy, Mushy and Sasha - had to be rehomed. It was impossible to even contemplate putting them into six months quarantine in the UK. I still find this very hard to write about.
A little later, I went to stay with my cousin in Crickhowell on my own for two weeks. By this time I was very clear that Crickhowell was where I wanted to live.
I had already made the decison to get rid of just about all my personal belongings...except some large paintings. For this second trip, McClure and I removed canvases from their stretchers, and then rolled them into long plastic tubes. Remember some of these paintings were 8' wide. An indication of how different things were then. I was allowed to put them on the plane with no extra charge ..and, having said 'nothing to declare' I wheeled them through customs in London without any problem!
After I returned to Chadds Ford, I continued to tie up all loose ends, in preparation for departure in the Spring of 1994.
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I am hoping to find a scanner today so that I can begin to upload many of the photographs I have from these different periods, and so as they say in the States, watch this space.
All seems well in Kent.
A Bientot
