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SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | SEPTEMBER 2022 19 By Tom Austin, Resident We lost a beautiful granddaughter this year. Ciara Rose Austin was only with us for two and a half months. She was on life support in UCLA Medical Center waiting for a heart that never came. Afterwards my sister sent me a fairy in memory of baby Ciara. The fairy was handmade by an artist who has made several different ones. It is aluminum wire and ours has a small blue stone signifying her heart. We have it proudly hanging in our patio cover and call her The Ciara Fairy in memory of baby Ciara. Our Ciara Fairy is special; she looks out for us. One day I found a tiny broken egg on the patio. Looking up I found a hummingbird had built a nest on the calf of the Ciara Fairy. I got my ladder out and looked in the nest but there was nothing else there. Days later I noticed the hummingbird's increased presence as she continued to work on the nest. A few days after, I found a new tiny egg. In another few days there was a second egg. Now it was official… the Ciara Fairy had become a surrogate mother to a hummingbird and her two eggs. Within a few days of each other, the two eggs hatched. Mother hummingbird and two new babies became full-time residents on our gracious Ciara Fairy via the courtesy of her lower leg. The Ciara Fairy stayed true to her supernatural powers looking over us and them as their proud stepmom. Many weeks later the babies outgrew the nest and the mother no longer had room to nest on them. A few days apart, the babies said their good-byes to the Ciara Fairy and flew away to start their own lives. The SDV Ciara Fairy had completed a full life-cycle, bringing a new hummingbird family into our community. The birds haven't come back but the Ciara Fairy still proudly flies over us waiting for another sign of happiness and joy that only her presence can provide. A Real SDV Fairy Tale Wine Pairing

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