#Toddler’s art warms seniors’ hearts on Valentine’s Day

This New Jersey toddler has an art of gold.

Two-and-half year old Bella Singer loves painting — especially with a lot of time on her hands during the pandemic. Her mom keeps all of her artwork and, like many a proud parent, can’t bear to throw any of her efforts away.

Now the potential clutter is making hearts flutter!

The little girl and her mother, Husniye Temocin Singer, 37, came up with the ingenious idea of transforming Bella’s passion pieces into uplifting Valentine’s cards for senior residents at area nursing homes.

“February 14 is usually a special day when many families meet up and appreciate one another,” Singer said. “But this year’s holiday is different because the lockdown is preventing a large percentage of the elderly from seeing – let alone hugging — their relatives.

“They deserve support and encouragement so we can reassure them — through even the smallest gestures – that others are thinking about them,” she continued.

The Singers’ secret morale-boosting sauce involves Mom cutting hearts out of Bella’s paintings, gluing them to card stock paper and hand-writing heart-warming notes inside. The affirming phrases include: “You are very loved.” Bella likes to accent the final product with stickers.

Ever since mid-January, the dynamic duo has worked hard to create around 400 cards from Bella’s designs. They recruited dad, Tony Singer, 53, to help them hand-deliver the surprises to more than a dozen nursing homes. All were within driving distance of their digs near Livingston in places such as Jersey City, Montclair, Union and East and West Orange.

“We are always trying to teach Bella the importance of kindness, sharing, giving back and respect toward the elderly,” explained Singer, who moved with her family to the suburbs from Manhattan’s Upper East Side last fall.

The seeds for the Valentine’s Day pick-me-ups were planted over the holidays, according to nj.com, who first reported the story.

Since Bella and her folks could not spend Christmas with her grandmother Betty Singer, 81, currently isolating in upstate Ithaca, she sent her a comforting card that gave grandma goosebumps.

After that, Betty’s daughter-in-law believed it was only fitting to spread the same holiday cheer to other isolated seniors throughout the year.

Bella and her mom now plan to pay it forward for Easter and other holidays.

This baby Picasso’s artistic bent is no doubt influenced by her late grandfather Arnold Singer, a noted professor of Fine Art at Cornell University and leading expert in lithography.

“He would be delighted to know his granddaughter is sharing her art with others,” said Singer. “If it brightens their day, Bella will be honoring his legacy.”