L to R: Anne Bell Woods, Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, Melinda Bell Dickey, Beth Bell
We got this wonderful email the other day from one of our senior staff designers, Melinda Bell Dickey, that her mother had sculpted this beautiful bust of General Andrew Lewis, a Civil War patriot. The bust was officially installed this week in the Virginia House of Delegates at the state capitol in Richmond, Virginia.
Mel wrote: "The bust is just stunning, especially in person, and the overwhelming significance of what this means is so very evident when you are standing in this historically relevant room. The bust will be in the old house chamber in a space that has been waiting for this bust since 1932! It is the very room where General Robert E. Lee took his commission....a room designed by Thomas Jefferson....and of course for a designer that is prettty amazing in and of itself"!
While Anne Bell Woods, the talented mother of Melinda, and indeed the creator of this amazing work of art is not someone with whom we have a personal relationship, I am pleased that she is someone connected in some fashion to SSI. And that amazement is not because we want to somehow tag onto her prestigious honor but serves as a reminder that anyone...virtually anyone...can achieve wonderous things if we follow our dreams, our instincts and our inspirations.
Congratulations go out to Anne and to proud Melinda! You inspire us to be all that we can be!
