May/June 2019 Short North Gazette 9

A Lesson in Love

Back row L-R Emerson Beck, Rohan Desai, Lily Grey, Margaret Schroeder, Michael Wick, Felice Thomas, President of the Faith Thomas Foundation, Robbie Taylor,Ollie Tobias, Max Shonk, Olive Gonya, Dexter Warner. Teacher to left: Kaila Metzler. Students clockwise from Kaila: Leo Green, Everett Grote, Parker Wachsmith, Hridaan Ghosh. Teacher behind check: Jared Goodykoontz. Students behind check L-R: Ria Madhavan, Eva Hallowell, Raffaele Abbruzzese, Baylis Slone. Teacherto the right: Ben Searfos. Students to the left of Ben clockwise starting from the girl: Annie Peake, Archer DiCenzo, Leo Malin, Daney Singley, Ike Kudlak

Little Dreamers Big Believers daycarecenter in Harrison West raised

$267.00 for the Faith Thomas Foundationwith the help of the Bright Beetles Room5-year-olds. The Faith Thomas Foundationsupports individuals living with sickle celldisease and works to provide a smoothtransition of care from childhood to adult-hood. The teachers at Little Dreamerswere shepherding their students in sup-porting good works through their effortwith this fundraiser. “We as teachers felt it was important to

teach our kids how to give back to organi-zations that support our communities.Sickle cell has touched people near anddear to our classroom, so we wanted tospread the love for Valentine’s Day andsupport Faith Thomas Foundation and theimportant work that they do throughoutour communities.”The check was presented on February

26, 2019 at the Little Dreamers Big Believers Harrison West Center at 870Michigan Avenue. For more informationabout the Faith Thomas Foundation, visittheir website at www.faiththomasfounda-tion.org or call 614.476.6304.

Purple walls. Purple doors. Two purple doors.What mother in her right mind would approveof lilac doors? The room is small and onlyfor sleeping. Vincent painted it that wayjust for you. The magic red blanketinvites you to curl atop it, perhaps grabone of the pale lemon-green pillows, nestle,and fly, while catching forty winks.The rails of the yellow wood bedare strong arms to cradle you tightso you will not fall out when it loops and fliesupside down. The bristly orange washstand.Your mother would not like it either.It does not budge when you lean on itwhile you feel the thick blue basinand run your fingers over softer bluesaround the rim of the pitcher. Roughorange soap stings your nose and brings a tearto each eye. Behind the bed Vincenthas taken the liberty of hanging his hat and painter’s smocks on the pegs.And just for you, he has chosensome of his paintings to hang on the walls.

Your mother would probably approveof his Haystack and his Self-Portrait.She wouldn’t know Vincent kept changingthe pictures of this attic room, high in the sky,Unseen rafters arch over youlike boughs of a tree. They drip lovelike raindrops fall from wet leavesafter the storm has passed away.The tiny hole in the roof lets you seethe starry sky. Vincent would gladly have sleptdownstairs on the floor of the studioamong turpentine and oil smells,so that you could dream wild dreams,sleeping on his yellow bed in a roomyour mother would not approve ofbecause of lemon-green sheetsand purple doors.Looking through the Window

of Vincent’s Bedroom“This time it’s quite simply my bedroom – here color is everything; objects are given agreater style by simplifying them, thereby giving the impression of peace and generalsleep. Simply stated, the picture should stir the head, or more properly the fantasy.”

Vincent Van Gogh

© Rose Ann SpaithGod, Vincent, and The Poet:A First Collection of Poems Written in Response to the Life and Labor of Vincent Van Gogh, 2011