GOD'S ROSE OF SHARON

An Officer and a Gentle Man
Robert Reed Kessler:

As my father’s birthday approaches, I wanted to celebrate his memory with a video(Madeline's Lament) and a few pictures.

Many years ago while visiting my parent’s house,I came across an old folded up picture in a drawer. It was a drawing of my dad drawn during World War II. He was in the United States Naval Reserve and stationed in the Philadelphia ship yards at the time. A young naval officer approached him and explained he was an aspiring artist and he wanted to draw his portrait.

My dad told me his first thought was this guy must be sort of “odd.” Bob Kessler wasn’t the “art lover” type of guy. A man's man so to speak who wasn’t schooled in the fine arts but on the streets of hard knocks. You know, the same streets he used to walk five miles to school on and where he would find his endless supply of chewing gum on the bottom of his shoes. Those were tough times:-)

Life is about moments or snapshots that are sometimes captured in time. In either our memories or captured in art or photographs, it is these rare moments that capture our own mortality. On October 6th, 1944, this is what that young officer did for USNR Bob Kessler. He captured a moment in time that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. That is until 50 years later when it was discovered in a kitchen drawer.

I carefully unfolded it and showed it to him and he just smiled and said, “look at you, you’re just like that man who drew my picture that day.” I could tell by the tone of his voice that he realized that “art” seemed different to him because his own son was now an aspiring artist. How ironic life is at times. It had come full circle because he now better understood that artist from his past because he understood the artist spirit that was now within me.

He would have been eighty nine years old on the twenty first of October. Today my wife and I went to visit him on top of the mountain where he is now resting. It was a beautiful fall morning. The skies were clear and the colorful autumn leaves were at their peak. As we prayed, the cool breeze seemed to whisper that he was at peace. The hard life is lived was now a distant memory and I know he listened to our prayer.

I know he was listening because I always knew when he was near or in a room. I felt his presence today, I felt God's peace as well.

Happy Birthday Dad,

James Robert Kessler
Because of Him Art Ministry 2009