Meet Mr. Ford.  He is 94 years young and is a resident artist at the Clay County Care Center where Cliff's mother is now.  When we visit his mother, we always encourage her to walk up and down the halls with us.  Sunday she wanted to walk to the dining room and look out the picture window at the North Carolina mountains.  She told us at night the mountains look purple as the sun sets.  In the right corner near the large window is a table set up with oil paints, brushes, and canvases.  Leaning against the wall on the floor are oil paintings, many of them, and on a small easel on the table is a pastoral painting in progress.  I asked the CNA in the dining area who the artist was and she told me he and his wife are residents.  When he wants to paint, he pushes his wife in her wheelchair to the dining room and parks her facing him.  Usually she just sleeps while he paints.  She is 93.

Mr. Ford allowed me to take his picture.  He tried to wake his wife by patting her knee and singing a song telling her to smile.

She lifted her head for a second for me, then went back to sleep. 
Other than being hard of hearing, even with his hearing aid, Mr. Ford and I had a lovely conversation.  Today when I gave him my oil paint tubes and my oil brushes that I don't use anymore, he touched each tube of paint and smiled.  He's such a happy upbeat man.  What a beautiful attitude and love of life he still has.