Submitted by: Ascension Maakamedi
These shoes have a story to tell…
I met Ms Loren Shirley-Carr on the Mamahood Gauteng group. I was looking desperately for the SA flag sneakers for my managers who were flying to a Kickoff overseas. She started painting the shoes for us in December, together with her mom who owns the business ‘Alice’s Art’, and was the creative brain behind it.
Her tenacious spirit decided that she would not disappoint me.
Her mother had fallen ill with lung cancer, and tragically, on Christmas Day she passed on. Loren thought to call me and tell me she couldn’t continue painting the shoes, but then her tenacious spirit decided that she would not disappoint me! So, she continued painting all four pairs with her husband, her father, and a friend helping her.
Today, when I fetched the shoes, she started relating what had happened. We all just got so emotional…
Then she said she would never paint again … Although when she painted after her mother’s passing, she said she really felt her presence with her.
Let us motivate Loren to keep on painting and encourage her to make her mom’s memory and good work live on!
I’m staying for sure, because this woman right here did the most incredible thing for me!
Just look at our flag on those sneakers!!!! I’m staying guys, I’m staying!
FOLLOW UP: GREAT NEWS!
Talk about Diamonds on the Soles of my Feet . . . we have got National Emblems on ours!
Loren Shirley-Carr has decided to honour her mother’s memory by continuing to produce these iconic painted shoes! She is really not well herself at present, but she wants to continue her mother’s artistic patriotism and love of the country.
Through ‘Alice’s Art’ they started producing these little masterpieces to help pay her mother’s medical bills at first. The two of them would spend lovely afternoons laughing and chatting together while they designed and painted shoes which were often individually ordered. When her mother died there was only one order left which was Ascension’s, and completing that order at such a sad time was hard, but brought them all close to Alice again.
Now Loren is thinking of starting an #ImStaying range.
Talk about Diamonds on the Soles of my Feet . . . we have got National Emblems on ours!
