THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9406290094
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARLENE FORD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
No parent should outlive a child. But sometimes it happens.
Today, two years after her 23-year-old daughter Donna died suddenly of a rare form of leukemia, Linda Krull admits there still isn't a day that she doesn't cry at least a little bit.
She also admits what has kept her going, what especially got her through that first empty Christmas, was literally surrounding herself with angels.
First simple clothespin angels - hundreds of doll angels in raffia and lace, enough to decorate her own angel tree. Then elaborate fabric angels - in designer silks and ceramic accessories, so many that Krull was then encouraged by friends to create angel sculptures as an artform.
In Hampton Roads her work, ``Angelic Art,'' is in several shops including: The Image Agency, Kamala and Shells by Linda in Virginia Beach and Felicity's in Norfolk.
Inside her second-floor duplex, it's comfortable and typically middle class - except for angels.
Translucent white lace angels line tables, chubby, cherubic figures push wheelbarrows of pastel Easter eggs, patriotic archangels draped in red, white and blue robes herald the Fourth of July.
``Some of the lace is from Donna's wedding,'' Krull said. ``I was in interior design so I was designing the wedding. I had yards and yards of white lace for the table decorations and bouquets of silk flowers all made.''
She paused to wipe back tears and apologize, ``Sometimes it just catches up with you.
``At the time she became ill we were in the middle of planning her wedding. She was to have been married on Sept. 26, 1992, but in May 1992 she died.''
The young woman was in the hospital for only eight days with a fever. Diagnosed with a one-in-a-million form of leukemia, according to doctors, she was gone before treatment could begin.
``But I don't want this to be a sad story,'' Krull said. ``I am healing and the angels are part of it.''
However, at first it was sad, terrible. When everyone else was beginning to think about Christmas, Krull couldn't bear the decorations or gift shopping. Then from nowhere in particular, she was inspired to make just a few decorations for her home; little angel figures that clipped onto plants with clothespins.
``I guess I made 100 of them,'' she said. ``Made my own angel tree, and instead of gifts gave angels.''
As the months passed Krull left her job in interior design and began devoting herself to new, more elaborate angels. It was still therapy, but more than therapy. It was still a memorial to Donna, but one that others could share. Using silks, lace and feathers, painting faces in pale white or exotic bronzes and sprinkling them with ``angel dust'' for glimmer, she makes them for all occasions. Each is named and a one-of-a-kind work.
``I probably always knew Donna was an angel now. Or she lives with angels, or maybe she's my guardian angel,'' she said.
For more information about ``Angelic Art,'' call Krull at 466-7352. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARLENE FORD
One of Linda Krull's creations.
Linda Krull began making her elaborate angels after her daughter,
Donna, died two years ago.
by CNB