Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, December 19, 2020

13

PORTRAITS & FUN 

Mountain View News Saturday, December 19, 2020 

PORTRAIT OF OUR NEIGHBORS By Stuart Tolchin

JANE NIELSON

 
Imagine it is 5 A.M., another 
sleepless night, you wish you had at least 
one friend in the world to talk to and 
together make peace with whatever is 
keeping you up. Someone who knows 
all your secrets and still cares for you. 
Someone you can be open with. Someone 
who is smart enough to get all your jokes 
and no matter how bad you feel can still 
make you laugh. Few things are more 
important. I have someone like that; 
Jane Nielsen, the first and most lasting 
friend I made after moving to Sierra 
Madre over forty years ago. Now she 
lives in Tennessee in an Eastern Time 
Zone on a luxury 10 acre property with 
a 2,800 square foot house. A way of 
understanding Jane and Edmundo is 
their use of their property as a Bed and 
Breakfast site. While others are staying in 
their home at the cost of $350 per night, 
Jane and her husband make do residing 
in their trailer which has no electricity 
or running water or toilet facilities but 
allows them necessary daily earnings.

 Jane is always occupied tending to the 
property, pulling saplings, and constantly cleaning the house. She is up early and has become a 
successful stock market day trader. (This is the reason she is already up and busy when we talk 
at 5:00). Certainly this time of travel restriction makes things tough but Jane and Edd are doing 
all right. The contents of our conversations are filled with Jane’s instructions regarding diet as 
she has an almost life long interest in nutrition and exercise. Both follow disciplined diets and 
attend the gym regularly. Jane at 74 weighs 5 pounds less than when I met her 40 years ago and 
she was slim then. Our other subject is her grandson, a true freshman quarterback at Vanderbilt 
University, now forced to live in a bubble removed from other students, friends and family. His 
emotions tied to a season where he has lost every game while his coach has been fired have given 
Jane and I much to talk about. I have seen every game. 

 Over the years I learned of Jane’s difficult past which has had as a long term effect on 
her overall emotional stability. At 13, after already being deported from Canada because of the 
actions of her father and then returning to Canada when her 15 year old sister became pregnant. 
Jane was given the choice to stay in school or go to Denmark and assist her sister who was being 
sent away to avoid embarrassment. Now at 13, Jane was in Denmark, not speaking the language 
and also not going to school. Men, particularly their own abusive, addicted father have always 
been the source of great problems. Eventually the sisters returned to Canada where they both 
had further misadventures with abusive men. Police intervention was required and the girls 
were moved to San Francisco for their own protection.

 Now in the United States Jane had no desire to ever have a family. Out of ignorance 
and fear she became involved with a man who deceived her. Soon she was a single mother, 
with no education, not having learned to drive and no professional experience or qualifications. 
Her beauty she says brought men to her but also invariably brought conflicts. She describes 
herself as being a kind of sleeping beauty, unsure, awaiting a kiss from a Prince Charming who 
will protect her and cherish her, while at the same time she does not really want to be kissed. In 
Sierra Madre for fourteen years she and her daughter lived with a very nice man, but according to 
Jane, her previous painful experiences with men caused her to keep him at a distance inevitably 
dooming their relationship. During her time in Sierra Madre living across from me I took notice 
of her talents in photography, ceramics, and gardening. Talented but doubting her own ability.

 Happily, she has found Edd; a hard-working previously married man. Together they 
have put a life together, travelled the world and continue to prosper and they both still look 
good. Hooray! Well, now you know Jane probably as 
well as I do. I am a little luckier than you though as she is available to talk and laugh with me 
even at 5:A.M. 


The Creative Arts 
Gallery is open for 
Holiday Shopping!

Are you looking for that perfect last minute gift that doesn't 
require unpredictable shipping? The Creative Arts Group 
Gallery is open and well stocked with lots of wonderful one-
of-a-kind art works and gifts! 

We are grateful to all of you who have already come in to 
shop and welcome everyone to come take a look. 

We are also pleased to announce that we are beginning to roll 
out limited On-Line Shopping with curbside pick up for those 
of you who are local. Currently, we have a limited selection 
of artists and art work to choose from (there are significantly 
more artists represented in the Gallery than are currently 
available for online purchase) but it is a place to start!

Please visit our Gallery page to see a short video of EVERTHING 
in the Gallery and to check out our online store. If 
you see something on the video that you'd like but which isn't 
in the store, give us a call and you can purchase it over the 
phone.

All online and phone purchases ordered before Noon will be 
available for pick up between Noon and 2pm. 

Our Gallery hours for the next week are:

Friday 12/18 10am - 5pm

Saturday 12/19 10am - 2pm

Sunday - Closed -

Monday 12/21 10am - 2pm

Tuesday 12/22 10am - 2pm

Wednesday 12/23 10am - 2pm

Thursday 12/24 - Closed -

Friday 12/25 - Closed -

The Creative Arts Group offices and Gallery will be closed 
from 12/24 - 1/3. We will reopen on January 4, 2021 ready to 
take on the new year.

As always, if you have any questions please call us or feel free 
to contact us atinfo@creativeartsgroup.org if you need any 
assistance. All our best, The CAG Staff

(626)355-8350


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com