ABC’S WITH A STORY
This poster-sized print has a very special story. Created by an artist who grew up on Trenholm Road in Columbia—just a couple of blocks from the house we lived in when Patrick was born—the whimsical alphabet of angels is “dedicated to all our Angels. . . especially Marian and Daisy.”
Lucy Geiger Stackpole created this poster in 1995, shortly after our mutual friend Marian Westbrook died. Daisy was Lucy’s baby daughter, whom Marian was delighted to rejoice over in her final months. Lucy had a wonderful little shop called ABCs by Lucy in Charleston where she sold a series of her alphabet posters. Each was sold in a long plastic tube with a supply of colored pencils so that you could add your favorite colors to your poster. Lucy let me know when this one was ready, and I stopped by her mother’s home to get mine. I spent a weekend choosing the colors and filling in all the designs—all the while thinking about our friend Marian—and baby Daisy!
Lucy’s mother, Mrs. Geiger, was a remarkable woman herself. She was instrumental in getting Trenholm Road paved in the 1940s and in establishing Mays Park, which was just across the street from her home! That lovely park was such a central part of our family’s early years in Columbia, and Heather went to kindergarten there.
The alphabetical text reads “Angels Behind every Cloud Drifting Endlessly, Following and Guiding, Helping In Joyous Ways, Kindling Love, Making New Opportunities Possible, Quietly Running beside us, Steering us To many Unbelievable Places and Watching over us.” And the beautiful figures of Marian as the angel in the center is holding aloft a sweet Daisy.
This artistic piece was a beautiful tribute to a lifelong friend. I had met Lucy about ten years earlier almost by chance. She had come to the hospital where I worked for a job interview. In our conversation that day, we seemed to have a “soul connection” on so many levels. And before we finished talking, we realized we both were friends of Marian!
Looking at this print today, I wondered about Daisy Stackpole. It seems that she graduated from Belmont University in 2017. A costume designer, stylist, and visual artist, she works in film and photography. That she is an artist is no surprise!
Seeing a story 