The Scrabble Game, Acrylic

The Scrabble Game by Mary Hollinger

The Scrabble Gamie - Acrylic

This photo captures my very mild-mannered, humble, kind, and practical mother Nora, a registered nurse who used to say “I have never had a bored or sad day in my life.” Her 4-years younger sister Ruth was, as you can observe, a very different type of person from Nora.  Nothing rattled my mom; I think she was a natural born Zen Buddhist.  Ruth, on the other hand, was totally focused on her looks, highly dramatic and emotional and given to hysteria.  If you were having a crisis, you didn’t want to mention it to dear Aunt Ruth because she would make it her crisis and completely upstage you!  They were probably about 90 and 86 when I took the photo I based this painting on.   They played Scrabble (Gainesville, FL) at least twice a week, and each had her favorite drink.  Mom loved her Jack Daniels, and Aunt Ruth loved her vodka, which she drank with a straw in order not to smudge her lipstick.  Aunt Ruth was given to throwing Scrabble tiles across the room when Mom made a high-scoring play.  I think Mom probably let Ruth win many games for this reason.  Still, while they were polar opposites, they did love each other dearly.

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