Spend a Buck

Spend a Buck

February 15 was a special evening for my wife’s family. As many of you know, my father-in-law has been hospitalized since September. He had a triple bypass and valves replaced. The initial surgery went well, and he was able to return home for a week in late September. His stay at home was short-lived. One of the harvested veins for the bypass was taken from his breastbone area. After doctor’s harvested the vein, the reattachment of the blood supply to that area was unsuccessful. That didn’t become evident until about a week after the initial surgery. It was then that doctor’s discovered the problem, and by that time his breastbone had essentially dissolved, dying from lack of oxygen. The only recourse (acceptable to today’s medical policy) was to place him in a coma then remove what was left of his breastbone. That surgery was “successful”, but it has left him with an extremely difficult uphill battle just to regain the most basic physical abilities. Currently, he is staying at a rehab facility where today for the first time since October, he was able, painstakingly, to lift his upper torso up and swing his largely unresponsive legs off the edge of the bed. He’s certainly not out of the woods, but he is making slow progress.

That made the day quite special, but that wasn’t all. My wife and her sisters and brother had concocted a plan to surprise their mother with an 80^th birthday celebration at a friend’s house. A wonderful family friend at Smith Mountain Lake, Dee Dee Bondurant, donated her beautiful home and an excuse for getting her to the party. My wife’s brother drove 14 hours from Mississippi to be there, and her three sisters were all there as well along with many family friends from the lake area. Needless to say, my mother-in-law was very surprised and well pleased.

As I wandered around Dee Dee’s beautiful home, located on a small peninsula sticking out into the main channel at Smith Mountain Lake near the S curves, I admired her incredible collection of equine art. On every wall, she has numbered prints from Jenness Cortez. These realistic paintings are beautiful. Cortez specialized in painting Derby winners, but she also painted other famous racehorses, too. Dee Dee has many of the prints, I saw Lady Secret, John Henry, Spend a Buck, Ferdinand, and Alysheba. She probably had more, but those were featured in the living room.

In addition to the Cortez collection, Dee Dee also had several numbered Richard Stone Reeves prints. I noticed Phar Lap and PROFILES OF COURAGE – FOREGO, JOHN HENRY & KELSO. I was absolutely blown away by her collection.

Soon after I made my discovery, I sought out Dee Dee and asked her how she came to having such a fine collection of equine art. She explained to me that she and her first husband used to live in Middleburg, VA and breed horses. She wasn’t specific about what type, but I believe she was into steeplechase horses. She didn’t say why she got out of the business, but she did say that they really didn’t interest her anymore. Further more, she spoke about selling some or all of the collection. She thought she might put them on eBay or try to find the person who inherited the print number for the Cortez collection in the more recent years. I quietly thought to myself that one of my sisters, brother, or family friends might be interested in adopting her artwork.

All I know is that the Cortez pieces were stunning in their realism. The Reeves art was classic.