365 days of drawing ~ day eleven

I was afforded TWO hours today, by my loving husband, to sneak away and draw.  And draw I did.  I woke up this morning thinking of drawing.  My drawings consume me from the inside out, but only the ones that really call me to them.  The ones that really never leave my mind, the ones that I think about all throughout the day, they have always been the most important drawings, to me and others as well.  I have been unable to finish the drawings I try to force myself to draw.

I was remembering one important drawing I completed about 13 years ago for a friend.  He had been in the military, stationed in Germany, met and fell in love with a woman and had a son with her.  When his service to our country was at an end, his wife had decided not to accompany him back to the United States.  She instead stayed in Germany with their baby boy and her family.  This bothered my friend deeply, not knowing his son or seeing him.  His ex-wife sent the occasional photo home to him.  I do not know the specifics, nor do they matter, but when you see and hear the sadness in faces and voices, describing the inexplicable pain they are feeling, hearing their heart break - THAT is the pull and trigger for me.  I "borrowed" his photo of his son and told him if he let me hold on to it for awhile, I would present him with something special and give him the photo back.  I drew him a portrait of his baby boy and when I revealed it to him, the huge, towering, military man was reduced to tears.  I could see the joy it brought him.  A few years later we ran into each other online and he told me the picture I drew him hung inside his front door, so that everyday when he came home, it was the first thing he saw.  He told me he would forever cherish that picture and was eternally grateful for such a gift.  I have never forgotten that man or his son and when I felt the same sadness inside another friend, I was moved again.