I came upon a most interesting and inspiring story the other day, in a most unusual place. As some of my readers may know, I buy and sell antiques on Ebay , the world's largest online auction web site. I was looking for a picture of lilacs to buy and found one I particularly liked. After bidding on the item, I received a friendly e-mail inviting me to view more wonderful treasures from Russia.
Always interested in pretty things, I took a look and found MeeCoy's Russian Treasures.
I found several more things I liked and emailed to buy them. I got a lovely e-mail back from Sherri, who noticed by my signature that I write about Alzheimer's. Sherri told me the story you are about to read and I was hooked. I simply had to share this story with the world. It never ceases to amaze me the people I meet and the stories I learn on the Internet. It has brought the world to my fingertips and I am a better person for it.
Please read the following story and view the beautiful artwork. I'm sure you will find it interesting and heartwarming.
McCoy Hill is my friends real name. He is 73 years old and grew up in poverty in the southwest mountains of Virginia, near Salem. He worked his way through college and then became an engineer for the federal government. He designed areas for VA Hospitals. One of his proudest accomplishments as a federal employee was designing wards for paraplegics. He toured the hospitals and actually became a "patient" pretending he had no limbs and then worked on design for the patients. He retired from the government some 11 years ago.
In 1993 he took a tour to Russia and fell in love with the people there. He has since made 15 trips and will be going again on June 5th.
He has told me that the poverty of the Russian people just makes his heart ache as he has so much and they have to struggle for even the simplest things. He buys their artwork to assist them financially. He does this beyond the market of where the goods are usually sold, seeking out the more unfortunate, but highly skilled crafters and artists. He related a story about buying the paintings to me. He goes to a home of
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
