This was a commission undertaken for me by  SusanDeer. It took a very long time to do this, in part because Sue was experimenting with certain techniques, and wanted to get the result just right. The result, in my view, speaks for itself, in terms of the (high) quality.

One of the main characters in my Spontoon Island stories is Detective Inspector Franklin J. Stagg (a whitetail buck). Stagg was originally from New Haven, which in this fictional world neither merged with Connecticut in the 17th century, nor became part of the United States in the 18th century. It was its own city-state, and one that was predominantly Catholic.

Stagg was something of a rarity, in that he was both competent and honest, in a government that, from the end of the Great War on, was increasingly ineffectual and chaotic owing to serious splits. A massive corruption scandal in 1929 resulted in Stagg become the Chief of the New Haven State Police.

Two years later, in 1931, a violent revolution broke out, and the Red Fist, a Trotskyite organization, overthrew the government. Stagg was put on trial, as a member of the old regime, and sentenced to death (this, in spite of the fact that he refused to fire on the crowd that ultimately overwhelmed the New Haven General Assembly). Stagg, by means he does not know, nor have been revealed, escaped.

The regime, in revenge, executed Stagg's mate, and his middle and youngest daughters (the does first, third and fourth from the left here). The youngest was not even in her teens when she, along with her family, was hung in public.

The eldest doe-fawn managed to escape. The means here is known. Some of Stagg's friends tried to rescue the family, and triggered a massive firefight. In the confusion, the eldest doe-fawn was able to escape. It was assumed by all that she died in the firefight, but the lack of clarity in the circumstances is why she is looking out at the viewer.

Stagg, when he found out what had happened, had a physical collapse, and for years was tormented with horrible nightmares. He composed the text under the Cenotaph (which is legible). He also had the window installed in the little Catholic church on Meeting Island in the Spontoons, as the text says, in sorrow, penitence and remembrance.

The eldest doe-fawn got a nasty shock when she first saw the window. At this point in time, while she knows the truth of everything, she has not revealed herself to her sire, as the truth might kill him. A few of her very good friends do know the truth.

Incidentally, Sue's choice of flowers is quite deliberate, and it pays to linger with a closeup on many details you might not catch on first glance.