Faith Steed Howarth

[Question - please tell about when Merlin brought Avard Fairbanks, a famous Utah sculptor, into Mom's home (1430 Blaine Ave., SLC, Utah 84105)]

Merlin brought anyone he felt like in. You see, I'd never known my older brothers. When he came down from Canada to help mother. He did and he took good care and helped her. He was the bossiest thing I'd ever seen. He locked me in the cellar once. He had no pity or interest in kids. He was just taking care of mother. I've very well forgiven him for that because he did help my mother and she was the one that needed the help.

But, he got so when he came to Salt Lake, see, he liked to come to my place. He'd come and take a nap. He'd come and have food. I never knew when he was coming. He'd bring all kinds of stones and things with him. He brought this piece of stuff for Dad to see what he would make out of it.

He was just a very exuberant, powerful man. But, he could be very [ ... ] Anyhow, I opened the door and here stood Merlin with this man that I had never seen before. But, I recognized him because he was so popular. He came in. They spoke to me a little bit. He took him in every room of my house. The bathroom, the little bedroom where Pamela slept. Every room of the house they thoroughly inspected whether this man wanted to or not. [Laughs]

Then they came in. He was very nice to me. Invited me to come and see his pictures and talked for a little while. Then they went. Afterward, Merlin said that he had said, “Your sister is an artist and she has a very sense of balance.” You notice it has the balance. If it doesn't balance I don't like it. But, I didn't know it until he told me. And, of course, one of the paintings that was there I don't use now, but it is Pamela in a little blue dress and all that and it is good. These little ones that I brought home [referring to the hand colored black and white photographs that she has around the house], they're fading now, but they were done nicely. I did pretty good work that way.

I loved to do it [painting] and I brought all those things. I picked up one the other day and I thought, "Golly, this is pretty good." It was one of my old ones I was just working on. See, but, I tried to do one. 1 drew the picture. I'm not a good drawer. I just drew it, you know, like [ ... ]and it had little horses in it. Pamela didn't like it. Of course, the horse didn't look right just right. But, I could have improved it. So, I never finished it. But, there was a lake and trees and the horse and a little colt and it really was quite good. I thought, really that wasn't too bad.

You see, I got allergies that just made me sick and I couldn't do it. So, I gave all of those things to this artist. She's one that died of cancer. She was a dear girl. She had the oddest mother you ever. She was a good soul, I'm sure, but, oh, the girl had a poor place. She died, so I don't know what became of them. I didn't have an awful lot of them, but I had [...]

When I think of the stuff that I did when I came here and what I can do now. I can't breathe [ .... ]. [Probably referring to the paint fumes.]