My mother, who has memory loss, painted a picture that was displayed at The Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center’s annual Art Expressions Program Tea & Art Exhibit.  It was entitled, “Carl Man.”  When I saw the painting, I of course wondered, who was Carl Man?  Was he a man she was dreaming about?  Was he another resident at her Assisted Living Home?  I looked at the picture and was quite impressed that she had painted the image of a person.  I asked one of the facilitators who had accompanied my mother to the exhibit, if my mother’s painting was a copy of an existing picture.  She said that the painting looked familiar and that the original was probably one that was in the art room.

When I posted pictures from the day at the Art Exhibit on Facebook, everyone kept asking me, “Who is Carl Man?”  I had purchased the painting as a donation to the Resource Center and so I examined it further.  If, in fact, she had copied the painting from an existing picture, then she probably had copied the name under it.  The painting did look vaguely familiar to me.  I said to myself, “Carl . . . Man.”  And thought, perhaps it was “Carmen?”  I then Goggled images of the opera, “Carmen.”

And I found this:

Mystery solved.  My mother was painting “Carmen.”  I almost felt sorry, realizing that there wasn’t any Carl Man ready to spice up her life.  Mom has always had male admirers and I am sure that even if “Carmen” isn’t Carl Man, there are still men of a certain age who appreciate mom for the beautiful lady that she is.  After all, it’s not over till the fat lady sings . . .

http://www.theresadodaro.com   Author of The Tin Box Trilogy