Beverley Cameron, Susan Sutherland and Sandra Brownlee are sisters.
They were raised in a home filled with beauty – on a budget. Their
mother, Vivien, made centrepieces from nature. Her dishes sparkled.
Pops of colour filled each room, from a simple chair slip-covered
in purple corduroy to a lime green, mohair blanket folded across
the back of a sofa. Their father, Marshall, believed in a beautiful
front door. A table large enough to accommodate unexpected guests.
A comfortable bed. Both parents worked outside the home, but this
didn’t preclude them from being homemakers. They lived in many
homes when their children were young, but the message was always
the same: come in and sit down, we were expecting you.
One of their favourite houses was on the Bedford Highway. It had a
cherry tree beside the house and a long, narrow, sunny kitchen. In
mid-summer when the tree was filled with fruit, eleven year old
Sandra would climb on top of the scratchy roof and pick fat, red
cherries. Her twin sister Susan made cherry pie pastry in the
kitchen below. Older sister Beverley sat on a kitchen stool with
pencil and paper, drawing the scene : the garden beyond the kitchen
window, a bowl full of glistening fruit, a younger sister rubbing
flour and shortening together with her fingers.
The sisters are grown now and their parents have passed away. But
on any given day you can still find them at home, celebrating the
beauty of the everyday.