I was in the process of doing this piece when a former high school friend contacted me to see if I would be interested in donating one of my artworks for the class reunion. The fact that the piece had already been named "The Reunion" didn't surprise me. That is how my artwork seems to work. I am connected to something that I cannot explain. I call it Spirit ... but artists around the world call it many different things. These sorts of connections happen all the time, and help us realize we are all connected in ways we cannot explain.

This piece is dedicated to my sweet brother Tad. Tad was 18 months younger than me. He was the middle child. He was sensitive, funny, and good to the bone. He died in a small plane crash in Mexico when he was 29. They think the gas they bought in Mexico for the plane may have had water in it, thus causing the plane to malfunction. Our family still misses him. This piece is also dedicated to Frank De Nardo, a high school classmate of mine. Frank hung out at our house a lot through high school. Tad sort of took him under his wing and befriended him first. When Frank went off to Vietnam we all worried that he would be OK. I asked an ex-Marine friend of mine, who had served there as an Interpreter, to give him some wise counsel on how to survive. Unfortunately, Frank hardly had time to use much of what he was told. We all felt horrible when we learned that our friend Frank was one of the casualties of the Vietnam War. We lost so many good people. Frank was a good guy and a good friend.

Years later, I also lost my own son in an accident. Ryan was my first-born child. He was just barely 21 when he died in a freeway accident. I have spent many years pondering about life after death. I have come to the conclusion that life there must not be too much different from life, as we know it here. I believe that even animals have a spirit, and live on in the next life. Love doesn't die; it is eternal. That means that special love bonds we have formed with animals count too. This little bronze piece made my thoughts three-dimensional. I am sure there are such reunions in Heaven.