A gift from the heart. Larry's father made a teak-wood sign for outside his home many years ago. It features an American Indian head and his own name, L. J. McCay. My husband was given it some years ago and it has resided in our garage....a pretty constant nagging thing to Larry, although I wasn't aware of that. He says he constantly thought of it, wondered what to do with it, how to go about fixing it up, how to hang it.
I decided this year to take it upon myself to do something with it, and hoping for the best, turned it over to a friend who has been doing work for us. I explained how much it meant to Larry, and that it needed a "revival" and it needed to be hung outside.
Jon took it to a furniture refinisher who, in less than three days (!) took it completely apart, cleaned and refinished the internal carving, put in new plexiglass, and put it all back together and finished it with a protective finish made for teak.
Jon then had a wrought iron stand made for it, he sneaked over to our house once Larry had left for work, dug the holes, cemented the stand in and later in the day he brought the sign and hung it.
When Larry got home from work on his birthday, I made him wear a blindfold, I led him out to the yard, and then snapped a photo the minute he saw the sign. This might be the best I can do as far as surprises and gifts are concerned. I was worried in as much as it is an undertaking to take something that means so much to someone and hope that your decision is the right one.
Later we had the next L. J. McCay, and the 4th L. J. McCay come over, as well as Julia, Colleen and Patrick. They all loved the work that had been done.
And as Patrick said later, "it is like the signature of the McCay family". And we feel that Dad knows we have honored him, too. Like he always loved to say, "I started it all!"
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