DRAWING CATS Hello my name is Rachel. I come from Israel but my story will take us back to my origins. My mother (Donna) was born to a rich family that lived in Long Island, New York, USA. Her mother, my grandmother had two other kids besides my mom. She was a happily married woman with three wonderful kids. Her sister, on the other hand was a very talented woman that never married or had any kids. She loved singing and dancing but most of all painting, she had it all besides the thing she wanted most. She wanted to be happily married and most of all she wanted kids. Being such a talented person she spent most of her days painting and singing and bringing joy to my mother which was a little girl back then for she loved her as if she was her own. On years to come my mother left the United States and came to Israel where she married and had her own kids (I'm her eldest). When I was 9 during a visit at my grandmas house in Long Island my mother had found out that her beloved Aunt Shirley was dying from cancer and nothing could be done. When eventually she died, my mother was devastated. Years went by and as I grew up so did my passion for painting. I couldn't let a day pass without holding a brush or a pencil in my hand drawing anything the mind could think of. When I turned 18 we got a letter from my great-grand-mother. She sent me her best wishes for my birthday and a gift I would never forget. She sent me all of Shirley's art supplies wishing me success in my art studies. My mom was so excited when, as she was helping me unpack the paints, she stumbled into a box of old paints she remembered as her Aunts favorite. As I was so happy to get those paints I decided I'd give them a try. I took them out of the box and laid them out in front of me, then looked at the empty canvas and all I could think of painting was cats (now I'm a person that likes animals but I was never too fond of cats). I started painting and for days all I drew was cats. The strangest thing was I felt so good about it, it made me feel more relaxed than I ever was. Wondering what the use of the paints that belong to her beloved Aunt had provided, my mother came to my room to check out the work I had done. The moment she came into my room she took one look at the paintings and fainted. As I was shaking my mom trying to help her regain consciousness I heard my mom mumble "she loved painting cats". I never touched those paints again. Do you have kids? Weather u have kids or u are someone's kid your self u must have heard this a few times: "u look just like your mother" or "he behaves just like his father". kids mostly look like their parents and sometimes act like them. What would say about a child acting like the father she never had the opportunity to meet? a father that died before she was born!. This story takes place in Israel in the 1980's. I had an uncle (he was realy my fathers uncle only he was younger than my father so he was an uncle to me)that was married for many years but he and his wife never had kids. They realy wanted to have kids but the doctors had no hope for them. My uncle was a very unique personHwould do the weirdest things. But the weirdest thing about him was his taste in food. His favorite sandwich was with chocolate spread and olives. Years went by and in one of my uncles kidneys the doctors found cancer. He was very sick for a long time and knew he wouldn't make it so he made his wife ask the doctors to try and use his sperm to impregnate her. She did as he wished and two months after he died she gave birth to a beatifull litle girl. That little charmer grew up to be a very cute little girl that not only did she resemble her father she also acted like him. One day as she sat at the dinner table, out of all the things on the table she took the chocolate spread and then asked her mom if she could have a knife. To her mother asking what it was for she replied: "to cut the olives". Submitted From: Rachel Zandani, Israel