“While it could be as common a sight as any other, this image of my mother has always been the first to come to mind,” says Jack Hitchins, a Richmond based artist.

Jack’s mother, Jean Hitchins, worked for more than 20 years with generations of multi-disabled students in Roanoke. She was awarded the Roanoke City Public Schools Teacher of the Year award in 2011 and the Virginia Lottery’s Super Teacher grant in 2017.

Jack states, “Although certainly fulfilling in its own right, it always appeared to me that her true thanks for the work was simply taking sanctuary below our tulip poplar tree and behind the screened windows of our back porch with a book in hand.”