It may have been something that their parents had made and they value the painting/portrait as something their parents had done and/or valued in their own home. It could be, like my husband's case, there are almost no pictures of him as a small child. The only one we have of him happens to be a fairly large picture I had framed BECAUSE none other exist at all. You see it as creepy. They may simply see it as a reminder of another time when people in their life were still around who may be gone now.