A package sent to Europe (on a return trip)

      Today we had two pieces of artwork -- wrapped in a nice package -- sent to our cousin Heleen in Belgium.
      That is a simple sentence. The significance of the artwork and package is more than simple. It is, we think, a good story.
       These are pen-and-ink sketches of two scenes in The Netherlands: (1) a typical Amsterdam canal setting and (2) boats in a small river.
       Nothing fancy, not spectacular. But the sentimental value is -- to borrow a phrase -- priceless.
       What is important to us is that our family -- first Mom and Dad, then us -- has had these longer than I have been alive. So more than 70 years. They came with us from Amsterdam to Shreveport, and after July 2010, to Fort Worth.
       Now they are returning to Europe -- going home, in a sense. We are pleased to send them where they will be as greatly appreciated as they have been by us.
       The artist was Philip Kopuit. He was my mother's uncle; her mother's brother.
       He drew them before the Holocaust. He might have drawn them (don't know this for sure) while he, his wife and his pre-teen son, Maurits Kopuit, were hidden in South Holland, hidden from the Nazis.
       Philip, sadly, died during that time; he was only 39. Heart disease.
       Maurits was my mother's first cousin, her closest relative after World War II (until she married Dad). He would become editor of the Jewish newspaper in Amsterdam; in my opinion -- and I wrote a blog on him three years ago -- a brilliant writer, student of human nature ... and a funny, funny man.
       His mother, our aunt Helena (Lena, we called her), lived two houses over from us in Amsterdam for my first 8 1/2 years. She gave Mom these two pieces of artwork some time between 1945 and 1947. 
       They were in our little house with the paper-thin walls in Amsterdam; they hung for years in my parents' houses in Shreveport; for 41 years in what was my sister Elsa's old bedroom in South Broadmoor.
       Bea and I have been downsizing for years, and we did not have room to hang these two framed pieces. But now they are out of the closet.

With Heleen, April 2013, Amsterdam

       Elsa suggested that we offer them to Philip Kopuit's grandchildren, Maurits' children -- Heleen in Antwerp, Philip in Israel (both named for Maurits' parents). Elsa and I share great grandparents (Kopuit family) with them.
       Heleen gladly, thankfully, accepted.                
       We took the pieces to a nearby art dealer's gallery. Bea has done business there previously, trusted the owner would care for the pieces (at plus-70, they are as fragile as we are), and so he carefully packaged them for overseas shipping, tightly sealing them (varnish was the last step).
      We think Heleen (and husband Jacky) -- so gracious when they came from Antwerp to Amsterdam to spend an afternoon with us on our visit there in April 2013 -- will treasure having these. Would have been the same if they had gone to Philip (and Puah) in Jerusalem.
       We picked up the package Thursday, took it to FedEx today -- and it is on its way. Maybe it is not right to ask for prayers for a package of artwork, but let's do it.
       Happy to keep these in the family. Our sense of pride in this artwork indeed is priceless.
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http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2015/08/my-mothers-first-cousin-one-of-my-heroes.html