EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — At the age of 93, Tina Uustal finally got recognition for her artwork.
She won a tiara, a scepter, a check for $300 and some Christmas cards of her own design for her nursing home and relatives to send out this year. Her watercolor of a Christmas skier, painted before she entered the Evergreen House Health Center, took first place for the Northeast Division in a national contest sponsored by the nursing home’s parent company, Life Care Centers of America. The company had Christmas cards made from the designs of each of seven division winners.
“That’s me,” she said of the painting on Tuesday. “Do you think it’s beautiful?”
Uustal, who was born in Estonia, fled to Germany when she was a teenager, came to Rhode Island with her husband, Uno, a doctor, and four sons and lived in East Greenwich until 2½ years ago.
She liked to ski in her younger years, she said.
She said she skied “wherever there was a mountain,” but her youngest son, Aarne Uustal, 55, of Pawtucket, said the family skied in New Hampshire at Gunstock and Waterville Valley and had a chalet in the Lake Winnipesaukee area.
Aarne Uustal, reached by phone to fill in the gaps in his mother’s memory, said his mother has eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Two other sons live in Rhode Island, Thomas, 68, in Jamestown; and Matti, 59, in Saunderstown. One son, Heikki, 57, lives in Morristown, N.J.
“She’s been painting since I was little,” Aarne Uustal said. “She did oil painting.” He said she painted smaller works in watercolor, including the skier, about 10 years ago.
Tina Uustal’s room is decorated with many of her paintings, said Patti Caito, activity director at Evergreen. “She does paint here,” once a week in an interpretive painting class, Caito said.
Residents from Life Care’s more than 220 nursing facilities across the country entered the contest, said Dianna Shaw, Evergreen’s executive director. The Northeast Division includes 25 facilities in Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Evergreen received about 150 copies of the card, Shaw said. Some were given to family members, and the rest were sent out as Christmas cards from the skilled nursing and rehab center.
Uustal will be able to spend her check on a shopping spree. “We’re going to take her out,” Caito said.
On the evening of Dec. 11, Evergreen threw a party to celebrate Uustal’s achievement. Residents and staff joined with family members to enjoy cake and watch Uustal receive her tiara and scepter and be presented with an oversize copy of the check.
“The smile on her face was priceless,” Caito said of the party.
On Tuesday, Uustal couldn’t recall the party but wore her tiara and was delighted when she saw the check. She asked for a mirror. “I want to see my crown.”
She said she had never before been recognized for her artwork.
Shaw reported that after the party, Uustal said: “That was the best night of my life.”
