This year I decided to give very special gifts to my adult children, Phillip and Jennifer, to honor their dad who passed away on October 14th. Phil was a wonderful Bible Study teacher. He had been teaching at our church in Highlands for a couple of years. Prior to that he taught for decades in Alabama. Phil would dive into a book of the Bible and teach it scripture by scripture. He worked on his lessons from Sunday night until Saturday night each week. Phil wrote his lessons by hand using different colors of ink to emphasize certain points or scriptures. So when I pulled out stacks of his past lessons, I knew I had to do something very special with them. I wanted to have them bound into two books—keeping his handwritten lessons as the pages in the books. So I visited several businesses and explained what I wanted. I was discouraged when each business said they could only spiral bind the pages and put plastic covers on. That wasn’t what I wanted at all! I started calling businesses I found on the Internet and I asked multiple friends for recommendations, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. Then one day I decided to google “book binding Asheville NC.” And up popped a promising lead....Azalea Bindery. And as I read on her website, I knew I had found the perfect place. I immediately called Mary Carol and explained what I wanted. She said this type project was exactly what she loved doing. I made an appointment and started gathering everything to take with me. Mary Carol said we would design the books together. The next day I drove to Mary Carol’s house. She had turned her garage into her studio. Mary Carol was a joy to work with! I decided on a bonded leather cover, selected beautiful marbled paper for the inside of the books, and chose a bronze imprinting for Phil’s name. I asked Mary Carol if we could use one of two photographs for the first page of the book. She suggested I use both photographs for this project—-one for an embedded photograph on the cover and one as the first page of the book. Perfect! In the picture below, Phil’s Bible is opened to his favorite verse—Romans 8:28. It is displayed on a trunk by his favorite chair along with a craft he made years ago. A wooden cross is embedded in a rock with the word “Tetelestai” painted beneath the cross. Tetelestai, uttered by Jesus on the cross, is translated “It is finished.” It can also be translated “Paid in full” and, during Jesus’s time on Earth, it was written across a bill once the debtor had satisfied the debt. Mary Carol suggested we add Romans 8:28 to the photograph and she set to work on the computer to show me how it would look. I left with a detailed invoice and a hope that these books would be what I envisioned. Weeks went by and then Mary Carol called to tell me the books were ready. I drove back to Asheville wondering how the finished books turned out. I was ecstatic! The books are beautiful! Look how precious... I hope my children will cherish these books as much as I do. Merry Christmas, everyone!
4 Comments
Mary Herring
12/25/2019 10:32:00 am
Sharon what a great gift. They should treasure these forever.
Reply
Frankie Lake
12/25/2019 11:01:58 am
Sharon what a beautiful tribute to Phil for your kids to cherish a lifetime... sometimes being persistent has its rewards! Merry Christmas 🎄
Reply
Jennifer Ramos
12/25/2019 10:02:41 pm
It was beautiful. Especially when I opened it to see the handwritten originals. I teared up as I put my hand over his handwriting. Thank you, mom!
Reply
Jill Hargis
12/26/2019 01:32:16 pm
What a beautiful gift – a cherished treasure. God bless you.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Phil & SharonMarried 40 years and hoping to enjoy many more! Archives
December 2019
Categories
All
Categories
All
|