For Steven Garver, life has come full circle.
Two years ago Garver found himself back at the kitchen table with a sketch pad and colored pencils, something he had not done since he was in art class as a student at Iola High School.
Never lacking for things to do, Garver was enjoying retirement with golfing and biking while biding his time to travel the world with his bride of 47 years who was just a few years away from retirement. Sandy was also taking care of her parents one suffered from dementia and the other had Alzheimers which kept her extra busy. When her father, Wayne Hiser, passed away, Sandy had to put her mother, Oleata, in an assisted-living home. Sandy still spent several hours a week with her mother.
Then life threw the Garvers a curveball. Sandy developed a stomach ache. In the span of a few weeks, Sandy had been to the doctor as well as a chiropractor. Blood tests followed and doctors determined she should have her gallbladder removed. But then they received a call from a doctor saying he didnt like the looks of a CT scan and scheduled Sandy for a biopsy.
Two days later, while visiting her mother in the nursing home, a nurse told her that Sandy looked a little yellow.
We go get the biopsy and you wait just a short period of time for them to have the results. He calls us in the room and said, well its cancer. I just lost it, Garver said. She said, God is going to take care of everything. She cried a little, but she cried for me. She did not cry for herself. She had always been very religious, so she was not worried. We had been together since high school.
They scheduled her for surgery for pancreatic cancer in January of 2017. She passed away that November.
STEVEN AND Sandy met in a high school art class in Iola. She was a sophomore and he was a senior. Sandys group of friends referred to Steven as the teachers pet. Steven was talented at drawing portraits and the teacher spent more time with him, helping him develop his talent.
Steven and Sandy married right out of high school.
Over the years he would draw occasionally. After Sandys cancer diagnosis, he immersed himself into his art.
During the course of all of this, I started drawing again. I was in the house all the time trying to help her. Most of them were just pencil drawings and then I started thinking I would like a little color, so I started using colored pencils, Garver said. I hadnt drawn since high school, but Sandy said, wow, some of these are really good. I didnt perceive them as being good.
He started drawing some of Sandys favorite cartoon characters. He then started drawing portraits.
Its like a therapy for me. It has been a long, long journey where I am trying to find myself, and reclaim myself, he said.
Garver pays special attention to the eyes.
