Sharlotte Wilson lives in Heidedal, Bloemfontein, in a house full of angels.

There are angels made of clay, angels of glass, angels of wood, angels of candle wax, angels with hearts and stars and haloes, angels with smiles on their faces and glitter on their wings.

But for Sharlotte, who taught life sciences and Afrikaans at Petunia Secondary School before her retirement six years ago, there are also angels unseen, angels who watch over her in spirit and soul.

She feels their presence in the light and grace that turn her house into a home, and it gives her comfort to know they are still an integral part of her life.

In 2015, her daughter, Charneil, took her own life, at the age of 18. A year later, Sharlotte’s husband, Neil, who was also a teacher, died in a car accident.

“Today, they are my guardian angels,” she says. “I know they send me a message from above, saying, ‘We are happy that something is happening in your life, and that you did not just give up.'”

That something is Arty Angels, an arts & crafts community initiative that Sharlotte started in memory of Neil and Sharneil.

She holds classes at her home, teaching young and old alike to make keepsakes, ornaments, and gifts from everyday household items.

But the greater gift is the lesson she shares about giving to others, without expecting anything in return.

She remembers Christmas as a child at her uncle’s home in Cape Town.

“We would make little gifts and hand them out at a children’s home,” she says. “My elders were just those type of people. When they made food, everyone who passed by could eat. Their home was open. I grew up with being charitable, sharing with others if they don’t have.”

At Arty Angels, with a nurturing, patient nature born of 25 years in the classroom, she shows her students the art and craft of “taking something small and making someone else’s heart happy with it.”

She knows how fleeting happiness can be, how hard it is to recapture when it vanishes from your life.

But she knows too that Neil and Charniel wouldn’t have wanted her to sit in sackcloth and ashes, asking herself “what if” over and over again.

Instead, she takes the broken pieces of her life, and by helping others find beauty and meaning in their lives, she makes herself feel whole again.

“It’s the cracks in your life,” she says, “that let the light shine through.”