Teas from the Heart serves widows

Jayne Robertiello

Widows from surrounding counties were the recent guests of Teas from the Heart Ministry. Surrounded by homegrown hydrangeas and neatly dressed hosts and hostesses, twenty-five women who had experienced the loss of their husbands joined hands and hearts.

Valets parked cars and cheerful escorts ushered the ladies into the home of Ken and Phyllis Ott of Hiawassee. A team of volunteers quietly moved around the decorated tables serving scrumptious food and several rounds of tea. As the women became acquainted, they shared their experiences of coping without their partners.

A program followed with Mrs. Hope Horkavy as the special singer and Mrs. Jayne Robertiello as artist/speaker.

Mr. Horkavy is a professional musician and Director of Music at Hiawassee United Methodist Church. She is founder of HopeSong Ministries and provides her testimony and song in churches and conferences.

Mrs. Robertiello, a member of Sharp Memorial Methodist Church in Young Harris, is a trainer for the Stephen's Ministry, a care-giving organization. Her artistry accompanies the compelling narrative of over-coming bitterness and the restorative nature of forgiveness.

Mrs. Hope Horkavy

The widows, ranging from young to old, were held in rapt attention as Mrs. Horkavy sang and then as Mrs. Robertiello told her story. While continuously adding color to a totally black canvas, Mrs. Robertiello told of how, at the age of eleven, her grandfather presented her with an easel, a set of paints and a canvas. That began a long-lasting love of painting.

While Jayne and her husband, Dom, raised their family in Florida, she taught school and took a hiatus from her painting. One day, while experimenting with a new camera, she photographed some swooping Sandhill cranes that mesmerized the children in the play yard.

That memorable scene, children and cranes, inspired her to begin painting again. Birds, floral scenes, and especially old barns, became the subjects of her painting. The requests for her painting steadily increased. She donates all of the profit to Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit homebuilding organization.

The widows listened intently as Jayne's brush swept across the darkened canvas, painting a picture of hope and light while she told of the tragedy that happened in the summer of 2005. Her husband was cutting grass on a riding lawn mower when he was struck and killed by an unlicensed fifteen year-old driver. The teen even had young children in the car which drug the mower and sped away.

Jayne related how her pastor who was on the first day of his job at the church helped her through the devastating experience as well as her daughters and friends. For a long period, Jayne felt anger, not only toward the teen driver, but toward the adults who permitted him to have a car.

The widows who had been so merry minutes earlier became somber, even teary, recognizing the resentment that many themselves had felt. However, Mrs. Robertiello was quick to tell how she eventually gained the restoration of her spirit, recognizing that only forgiveness releases the hold of bitterness.

"I've seen the changes it makes. I know the warmth that community embrace can bring and I always want to be a part of that," said Mrs. Robertiello.

The group responded with understanding nods as Jayne finished her painting of Godgiven light streaming through the mountains. The finished canvas captured the essence of redemption in the valleys of life.

Although their circumstances were different, the guests left the Teas from the Heart camaraderie that afternoon appreciative of the ministry that brought them together.