Brown believes Hilyard, more than anything, wanted her to make a full-time living as an artist to eventually free her children and herself from an abusive marriage.
Now, if her works sell as planned, Hilyard's art would raise approximately $30,000 for her three young boys.
Qin, who owns a restaurant, had no qualms about doubling the size of his family to help out his longtime friend, but said the money would help Hilyard's boys move to South Africa later this year to live with her relatives.
The boys miss their mother and father, Qin said, but have expressed their losses in different ways. The oldest boy, who is 10, understands "everything," Qin said, but doesn't bring up the tragedy too often.
"He's holding a lot inside. He's working it all out inside," Qin said.
There are small things, Qin said, that each boy does to remind him of their mother.
"When I go out to cut the lawn, they come running out of the house and make me stop so they can pick all the flowers first," he said. "I never notice them, but they do, and we take them to their mother's grave."
"Celebrating the Art of Chun Yan Hilyard" will take place on Thursday, from 6 p.m.
to 8 p.m. at the Noyes Museum of Art
in Galloway Township For more
information call 609-652-8848
or visit www.noyesmuseum.org.
For more about Chun Yan Hilyard
visit www.chun-yanart.com
