Melanie Crane Davis died in November
of 2001 of untimely cancer. She lived a life dedicated to family and to love. During her Life,
and surrounding her death, she and her husband had a remarkable experience with one of Bill's important paintings.
To us here at the Bill Rane Story, Melanie's Story
stands as a meaningful example of the profound role that art and the creative process can bring to human
lives. We are grateful to Melanie (and we miss her). This is the story of her, her husband, and a particular
Bill Rane painting as told at her elegy by her husband, Doug. We like to call that painting "Melanie's Moon" here
at the Bill Rane Story because we have no doubt . . . this Bill Rane painting is "Melanie's" moon.
Melanie in facing her cancer never left the true track
of dedication to the quality of life and love. Even while she knew that cancer would ultimately be her earthly
undoing, she never faltered in her faith that life and love matter and that beauty was everywhere. We cannot claim
surprise that her life and death were touched by Bill's creative imperative and we are certain that Bill was touched by Melanie
and by the true integrity of so many of his sincere collectors.
Melanie and Bill shared this: They both lived their
lives with focus, great generosity, and with sincere connection with others.
Here now is Doug's touching eulogy
with a moving end note that is
a tribute to life itself:
"My father frequently tells
the story of my first words as a baby. He claims I skipped single words and started with phrases. According to the story,
I was 14 months old and we were living in Boulder, Colorado. It was a sub-zero night in late February and I was having difficulty
breathing because of the croup. During these nights, the doctor had told my father to take me out into the cold dry air. While
standing outside my father looked up and said, “Doug, look at that big moon in the sky.” I surprised him by pointing
and repeating “moon in the sky.”
Skipping ahead about 34 or so years, I was beginning
an involvement with a singles group at First Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During a group event at a Baton Rouge
restaurant, I met and had a long conversation with the lovely Melanie Crane. The following week, the singles group was scheduled
to go to a Cajun seafood restaurant deep in the swamps of South Louisiana in the small town of Livonia. The plan was that
the group would meet at a local coffee house and once everyone arrived we would carpool to the restaurant. I arrived on time
and no one was there. A few minutes later, Melanie came in and we waited and waited. No one else showed up. We tried calling
people in the group and could not reach anyone. Finally, worried that we had gone to the wrong meeting place, we decided to
drive to Livonia. Of course, we had been set up and no one in the group was at the restaurant when we arrived. Melanie and
I had a wonderful time and after a delicious meal, we decided to take the scenic route home through the town of False River
and cross the Mississippi River via the St. Francisville fairy. It was a warm
foggy night in late September and there was a full moon. We drove onto the fairy and were the only passengers and paid the
dollar fee. We got out and standing on the bow of the boat, crossed the river in the light fog under the full moon. We then
decided to cross back across the river and then, of course, we had to come back again. All on the same dollar, we made several
trips back and forth across the river until the fairy closed for the night. As they say, the rest was history.
In December 2000, when Melanie and I were in New Mexico,
we visited the Bill Rane Gallery in Taos. Bill is the father of a dear friend of mine Jonas Rane. Jonas was in our wedding
in 1998. Our only purpose in going to the gallery was to view the art. We never intended to purchase a painting; however,
we saw a painting that we both knew that somehow we were going have. We both had decided before any verbal communication to
do whatever we needed to purchase the work. We both knew that the work touched us and was meaningful on a deeply personal
and spiritual level. The painting is now titled: “Melanie's Moon.” The painting depicts a couple in a loving embrace
(or perhaps one) under (or perhaps in) a full moon.
I am a person who is extremely skeptical of supernatural
claims of any kind. Nonetheless, I believe that God works in mysterious ways that are beyond human understanding and this
story is true. After five years of living life well with breast cancer, Melanie’s
liver failed in November, 2001. Following several days in a coma, Melanie died peaceful at home in her own bed surrounded
by loved ones. Her longtime friend and RN, Libby Disdad, recorded her last breath at 4:45 pm and her last heartbeat at 4:50
pm. Melanie’s family and friends stayed with her a few minutes and then left me to be alone with her. I prayed, cried,
told her goodbye, and I prayed some more. It must have been about thirty minutes before I left the bedroom. I went out into
the backyard. It was that time just past sunset when the light had a soft radiant glow. A storm front had blown through the
night before and the air was fresh and crisp. The sky was an amazing tapestry of low and high clouds, textures and colors.
And, to the East, was a rising full moon. An amazing sense of peace, beauty and love washed over me. The next morning in the
paper, I somehow noticed in the “Solar and Lunar Tables” that the November full moon rose in Atlanta at 4:46 pm
on Friday, November 30th, 2001.
Southern rocker, Warren Haynes, of Government Mule and
the Allman Brothers, describes the sky at the moment he learned of Jerry Garcia's s death in the song: But there’s a
banjo moon in a tie-dyed sky.
Call it synchronicity.
Or maybe it is just the gift of art [the same
gift, if in different form, that Melanie gave to all in her life]; a gift beyond self, beyond possession and beyond knowing.
A gift that only gives and asks nothing
in return."
