When I lost my Grandfather I was still just a boy. I remember crying at his funeral - I loved him and felt a tremendous sense of loss. I remember all the flowers and food baskets that were brought to the house and the people coming and going. I remember how the house took on the scent of a spring floral garden in bloom... Now, years have passed. The scent of the flowers is gone and only memories remain.

The memories of my Grandpa were invoked only once in a great while until I received a gift from my Dad... a keepsake to be cherished forever. What was it? An axe. Actually, a cruiser's axe. That may seem a bit strange but it makes sense if you knew my Grandfather. Some called him a Timberbeast. I never fully understood exactly what a Timberbeast was but I can tell you that he truly was a pioneer up in the North Woods. He was a logger and ran a logging camp. He built log cabins (by himself), making 2 cabins per year. He built the structure of one cabin during fair weather and did finishing work on the other cabin when the weather turned foul. He built a fishing resort from log and ran it - with my Grandmother's help, of course. He even made wooden boats for his resort clients to fish from.

Although he wouldn't drink it outside of checking for taste, it was said my Grandfather made some of the best moonshine in the region. At least that's what one of the judges in town said (he was one of my Grandpa's best customers!). Where was the still? No one ever knew. The transactions were done via directions such as: "Walk 20 paces due East from the boulder on the side of the road. You will come to a fallen Balsam tree. Follow the tip of the Balsam pointing South 10 paces - the jar will be behind the trunk of largest of the three Birch trees."  Rumor has it that Grandpa used his bull-dozer to bury the still somewhere deep in the woods. We'll never know for sure.

I remember all the stories he would tell my Sisters and me. One that comes to mind was when someone at the logging camp bet him that he couldn't catch a live deer. He strapped on his snowshoes and headed out into the woods. He tracked a deer through deep snow until the deer simply couldn't go on anymore. The exhausted little deer could no longer run or fight. My Grandfather hoisted the deer up onto his shoulders and brought it back to camp alive! Yes, he let it go once it had recovered.

My Grandpa did many things but he was a Woodsman, pure at heart. Ultimately, he lost his sight. Though legally blind I remember him jumping at the opportunity to go "up to the cabin" (one that he built, of course) with us when we went up for a family vacation. I remember holding his hand as we walked up the dirt road he had made with his bull-dozer years earlier (I was quite young). As his sight grew worse, he refused to go anymore. This was almost as sad as the day he died.

He was a man of deep pride and although he would not allow anyone to lead him around, he somehow taught an Elkhound how to do exactly that. He was always a man with great fore-thought and some years earlier had used his bull-dozer to create a series of trails through the woods that his beloved dog would guide him through. He would tie one end of a long rope to the dog and, in turn, the other end around his waist. It was as if the dog could sense the reasoning behind all this and she would always bring him home safely.

I believe my Grandfather knows when I'm thinking of him whether it's while I'm walking down the road we traversed together so many years ago or just laying in the grass on my back, marveling at the Birch trees stretching up to the clouds drifting by. It's funny, my Mom told me that's what he used to do too. I guess that was how he stopped to smell the roses.

I wonder if he knows that his old Cruiser's Axe has become the embodiment of all these memories for me. Who would have thought that an Axe, given to me many years after his passing, would serve as such a special keepsake. That axe was at home out in the woods... so was my Grandpa. I think of him whenever I see it.

I myself have been a picture framer since 1992. Looking at the axe one day I wondered how to give "an axe" to others grieving the loss of a loved one. Then came the answer - Sympathy Art. Through Sympathy Art we are able to help those that would appreciate A Lasting Keepsake from the Heart. From a beautifully framed piece of personalized artwork the memories of our loved ones lost can live on forever. Everyone can have a Cruiser's Axe.

-Steve Wasnick, Owner

http://www.sympathyart.com/