I was doing the typical scrolling several months ago, when I stopped by a site that I follow online about Louisiana life. In that serendipitous moment, an artist showcased some of her pieces to the viewers, and I was intrigued.

Rebecca Simmons Lombardo sculpts all kinds of interesting Louisiana-inspired artwork – shrimp, crawfish, alligators, fleurs-de-lis, and the piece de resistance: the New Orleans architecture reliefs. If there is a building in New Orleans that you have seen and loved, she has created a plaster relief of it. I commented on her brilliant work and asked if she does commissions. Hallelujah, yes, she does. (Do you hear the angels singing?)

So after rummaging through old photo albums to find a snapshot of a double shotgun in Broadmoor, I sent her the only photograph that I could find of the little house in which my two sisters and I were raised. Rebecca sketched the house then created a wall-hanging of it for me, then one for each of my sisters. It looks just like that house that love built way back when we girls were all together with Mama making life work as best as we could. My daughter and granddaughters don’t remember that house, but now they have an image of it hanging in Memere’s house – an image that will spark countless stories of the life we lived there, in that house, in that era, with little money and infinite love.

You can find Rebecca on Facebook and Instagram under her name. Go ahead and take a gander. You won’t regret it.