Lovers From Verona

A few days after my dad died, we spent hours going through boxes, papers, pictures, memories of everything that belonged to my dad that he had saved and put away. One particular picture brought out the story of the Lladros. My mom told us again about some of them and especially the one of Romeo and Juliet. It was very special to her. So special and heartbreaking that she burst into tears telling us the story again.  My heart ached for my mom as I watched her all these years later feel so hurt that it was gone. All of them were gone. And now dad was gone, too. Mom's heart was visibly broken.

Then I had an idea. I didn't tell anyone right away but I went home that night and got online. I decided that we were going to find those Lladros again and help her make a new memory with them, a happier one. We wouldn't need to replace all of them. We couldn't afford it! Maybe we could find just one of them and all pitch in and buy it. It took me a few hours to find the right one, but I finally did. I actually couldn't remember what it exactly looked like so I searched Lladro.com, first looking through each and every one. Then I realized I needed to look in the Historical Collections category. One by one I study each figurine until finally I saw a familiar one and I knew it was THE ONE - the Lovers From Verona! Now I had a name to go with the memory.  It said it was retired in 1994 which meant they didn't make it anymore so I knew I would have to find it online at an auction or craigslist and buy it from someone who had an old one. 

I searched eBay and found one but it was very expensive. I spent the next day writing a letter to the seller about my dad...

Have you ever seen the movie Big Fish?  This was my dad - an amazing storyteller because he had lived an amazing life.  My dad was an identical twin and was the kind of man that when you first met him, he was interested in everything you had to say and everything about your life and was your immediate best friend. He would give you the shirt off his back and my mom has even told stories where he literally gave away the Thanksgiving turkey, furniture from the living room and even a new bed they had just bought to someone who needed it more than we did.  He loved people and they adored his zany sense of humor, infectious laugh and personable spirit.  There was no one like him.  That’s why we were devastated when we lost him to congestive heart failure and other health issues on June 20, 2012.  He was 68. 

Since then, we have been helping our mom go through mountains of paperwork, letters, pictures, and hundreds of things he had collected in his amazing travels around the word.  He was in the army when I was growing up and we lived in many places throughout the world.  My parents were married on Valentine’s Day 1970 and my dad was CRAZY about my mom.  He always had renewed zest when he told us the same story of how they met and when they first got married.  He loved her.  When he was stationed in Hanau, Germany, he bought my mom this Lladro, the Lover’s From Verona.  It was a symbol of their love and fidelity, like the strength of Romeo and Juliet's love.  They were married for 42 years when he died.  But life wasn’t always such a fairy tale. 

When he was stationed at Ft. Carson, Colorado, my parents went through some difficult times financially.  They almost lost their house, their car was repossessed and my dad did the unthinkable – he pawned my mom’s Lladro.  My mother was devastated.  Someone whom we believed to be a good friend at the time, offered to by it back from the pawnshop on the condition that dad paid him back and dad hastily agreed, thankful to have it again.  He was in such financial crisis, though, that he was at first only able to pay part of it back here and there.  He went long periods of time unable to pay for it.  This friend never gave him the opportunity to work it out after that and kept it.  It has been a traumatic experience in our family for decades. 

Wednesday of this week, we were sorting through old pictures when something caught the memory of my mother.  She retold the story of the Lover’s From Verona and told us a new part of the story we hadn’t heard.  She knew it had been pawned but was under the impression that this friend was keeping it in storage for when they were able to pay for it and get it back.  This friend knew how much it meant to my parents.  My grandparents were visiting so mom and dad took them to visit this same friend and when they walked into their house, there in the front entryway was a glass hutch with my mother’s Lladro on display!  It was no longer hers.  
Of course she couldn’t say anything then but she burst into tears retelling us the story just yesterday.  She was still heartbroken after all these years.  We were all heartbroken, too, thinking of how devastating that must have been and how it’s been so hard for her all these years to not have it. 

So tonight, I have scoured the Internet looking for the Lover’s From Verona so that we can change that memory for her, so she can reclaim the love she felt when she first received it.  At first, I had no idea what it was called and then...there it was.  I hadn’t seen it for almost 30 years until tonight.  It is beautiful.  We would like to get it for her first wedding anniversary without our dad, which will be this upcoming Valentine’s Day and I just tear up at the thought of what that will mean to her....
(I wrote more here about negotiating the price and gave him an offer, for less than half of what he was asking!) 

I just knew the email was brilliant and would touch his heart and he would give it to us for a fraction of the price...

....I was only dreaming. He would not budge on his price. So I wrote to a different seller and begged for his mercy. And then to the manager of an online auction. Then I carefully watched an auction for this same figurine on eBay for days until it sold to someone else. I talked to my brothers about how much they could afford and - how were we going to find another one?! I kept saying to Garry -  that one wasn't meant to be, we'll hopefully convince the seller of the next one and find one by Valentine's Day...something will work out!

I drove to 3 antique stores and 7 pawn shops looking for a needle in a haystack and talking to every owner about what connections they had and how I could find retired Lladros. I brought antiquing newspapers home looking for news info about auctions and estate sales... It went on like this for weeks.

And then, a miracle happened.  Literally.  We still can't believe it... I burst into sobs when Garry called me on August 18th to say that the wife and son of my dad's friend from Colorado from 30 years ago who had originally bought the Lladros from the pawn shop was driving up from St. George and had some figures to give my mom. He said, "Don't get your hopes up...the Lovers From Verona may not even be there." So we held our breath and prayed for a miracle. We called our mom for hours and couldn't get a hold of her.  It was torture!  Finally, we heard from her late that night that the Lovers From Verona WAS there!! My Dad's tangible love was right there in front of her! 

You can't even begin to imagine how much this means to all of us in our family. I know they are just things, but this was truly a miracle and a blessed opportunity to bring us closer to our Dad's spirit. This glorious exchange has brought us all such peace and relief and has given us a strength and a comfort straight from our Dad's spirit, to this family's heart, to ours. I don't mean to go on and on and be over-dramatic but it's so important to understand that we view this as a special blessing from Dad and from them. We are SO thankful and are so overwhelmed by their loving gesture. They changed our lives with their love and gave us a piece of our dad back. We love and miss him so much. This means the world to all of us.