07/08/2025
When I woke up on the 4th of July and learned of the unfolding tragedy on the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country, I was devastated. I grew up in the lovely town of Gonzales, Texas (and have experienced Guadalupe floods locally), but I spent many summers and mid-winters at camps around Kerrville, and I have been in love with the people and breathtaking natural beauty of the region ever since.
When I was in 3rd grade, one of my best friends and I attended Camp Mystic’s 3rd term. I was placed in Bubble Inn. I was from a small, agricultural community but most of the other campers were from big cities. My bed was right next to an angel of a counselor named Cathy Patterson, who was a strong supporter of my budding artistic talent. She helped me feel safe and comfortable. At night while we said our prayers, she would tell me that she wanted me to know that God loved me, that I was most important, and that He had a plan for me before He created the heavens, stars and the sky. And she really meant it in such a sincere way that I believed it. She knew that we are all children of God and we are all deeply loved by Him. Through her, I felt God’s love in a strong way.
Tweety (the camp’s owner and camp “mom”) was also personally very kind to me (and a generation later, to my daughter as well), and she always went above and beyond to show her kindness to all of the campers. Dick (Tweety’s husband, co-owner and camp “dad”) took me fishing every year and always helped me get the fish off of my hook. He made us girls all feel special no matter what fish we caught (or how small they were). Mystic, and it’s God-loving people with servant’s hearts, played an essential role in shaping me into who I am today.
In addition to Mystic, I loved spending time at Mt Wesley as a child. And later, as parents, we had amazing retreats at Mo Ranch with our family and church. So, naturally I was so excited to get my first paid commission from the Kerrville Main Street Committee. It was an open art call, and I was so grateful that they decided to take a chance on me (though I had so few sculptures to my name at the time). They didn’t go with the first animal design that I had submitted, but they liked my style, and asked for additional proposals. There was a suggestion from the committee that I should design a Guadalupe Bass, since it was indigenous to the headwaters of the river and the Texas state fish.
With lots of input from multiple community stakeholders, the final design for Lupe was created and selected. I was determined to reward their faith in me by building the best sculpture that I could possibly make. In all of my works, my philosophy is to never cut corners, to use the best materials I can, and to fill the work with love. I even make the hard-to-see places at the top and the underside as nice as the rest because I know God sees all: “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as for the Lord, rather than for men.”
As a ceramist, one of my greatest joys is making tiles with the community that I include in the sculpture. For Lupe, we held several tile making events with the great people of Kerrville. I love people, and I love celebrating life with them and getting to memorialize special moments in time with them. The locals made hundreds of beautiful tiles to adorn Lupe: she has scriptures, ranch brands, a deer for the football team, an American flag and many charming tiles from participants of all ages (including a one week old baby's foot print). Of course, I have the honor of getting to include things that are personal to me, so I also created tiles with my little girl's fingerprints and my pet’s pawprints (from walking on my wet clay). Snowball the cat and Trixie the dog are no longer around, so it’s special to me that their prints are part of the work. I even had the heart-wrenching experience of making a tile with a child who died a week later of brain cancer. I love including the community and their stories and creativity into my work. It makes it a million times more special than any work that I might have created alone. And I have witnessed the pride of the participants coming back, and excitedly showing their work to their friends and family. It brings me such great joy!
Fourth of July was really hard for people all around the world, but especially for Texans, and especially for those with connections to the still uncounted number of those whose precious lives were cut short. I was still personally reeling from the catastrophic proportions of the disastrous flooding and the reports of the missing, and as I watched the videos of the flood waters, I assumed that - with the forces of water that were at work - there was no way that my sculpture could still be there. Knowing that I can’t store up my treasures on earth, I was at peace with the likely loss of the sculpture.
As I was settling into my acceptance of the likely loss of the sculpture, and reassuring myself with the knowledge that nothing material can last forever, my 9 year old daughter (whom we will be taking to summer camp along another hill country river in just a few weeks) said that I needed to be more optimistic. My husband (not always known for his optimism) also said that it would be there and that I need to be more optimistic. And while I’m generally an optimist, my heart was so heavy with grief that I couldn’t hold hope for that possibility. And, at that moment, as I was witnessing all of the devastation, I didn’t care about the sculpture. In fact, I would have gladly traded every sculpture I have ever made, if it would have brought back even one of the individuals who had been lost.... But life doesn’t work that way.
So when my brother found a video of Lupe, not only still standing, but looking completely intact, it was emotionally overwhelming. I felt joy for all the people who helped create her and all the people who loved her. But I knew that it was miraculous, and that I couldn’t take credit for her resistance to the forces of the water and all of the heavy debris raging down the river… All credit goes to our Lord.
When my husband saw the photos of Lupe after the floodwaters began to recede, his first thought on that most challenging 4th of July day was of the famous words from our national anthem: “Our flag was still there”. He even told me that maybe the statues' survival would help to inspire hope and pride in the community and perhaps serve as a rallying point for those whose spirits had been so tried and tested by the incalculable losses from the flood.
And then, to our amazement, this very thing started to unfold online. It has been so emotional for me to see from the comments on Facebook, that seeing the sculpture still standing - and in such amazing condition - was in fact giving people hope and serving as a symbol of pride and strength for a community that we all collectively hold so dear. None of us ever knows how to explain such tragedies. We can never fully know how God will use events that are so devastating to His glory. And yet, I trust in these words:
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
I know that God will work through this community of God-loving individuals to bring them back, and to unite their spirits to rebuild even as they continue to grieve the loss of loved ones. And I know that I am just one among millions of people, not just Texas-wide, but world-wide, who want to help contribute however we can to that monumental task.
Lupe proved to be strong. But the spirit of Kerrville is stronger. And God’s love is strongest of all. God gives us hope and perhaps Lupe can be a symbol of His hope; not only to communities that will need to lean on His strength (and on each other), but also to those of us who wish to show our solidarity as we stand with them. We are all blessed with talents and spiritual gifts. Mine happens to be art which can sometimes feel insignificant. Seeing Lupe inspire hope, makes me even more hopeful for the power of community art to soothe. It has been beautiful to see how others are sharing their gifts with their brothers and sisters who are in great need.
And while I grieve, I don’t understand the whys of disasters or why some people and things go while some people and things stay. But thanks to Cathy Patterson, I do know that God loves us, that we are important, and that He has a plan for all of us since before he created the heavens, the stars and the sky. I know that those lost to us are with Him and still part of his loving eternal plan.
I also know that….
A bell is not a bell until you ring it.
A song is not a song until you sing it
The love in our heart was not put there to stay,
for love is not love until you give it away.
So, I want to end with a personal note to all those who have lost so much, my deepest love goes out to you all, and I will be there in a few weeks after we drop my daughter at camp, to stand by your sides and help you recover and rebuild. I also wish to personally thank all those of you who are helping to support the recovery efforts not just in Kerrville, but across the great state of Texas and the world at large, by giving of your prayers, time, talent, and resources. Together, we all embody the spirit of being
Much love and hugs to all❤️🙏
