‘Goodbye, Hello’ 2021

A call came, “your Nan is not well, she does not have long”.

The previous night my Grandfather, Mum and Aunt had been called to the hospital to say their goodbyes.  She was in for surgery, but while waiting for a space to become free, she had taken a bad turn and sadly this was the end.

You don’t know her, but she’s a TOUGH cookie.  She had cancer a few years ago and kicked its ass!

She’s always been tough, punchy, one you don’t mess with.  So this was a shock to us all.

I rang the hospital and eventually they let me speak to her.  She had a moment of lucidity and we had a lovely chat.  A goodbye.

I spent the rest of the day working with the snails, being in the moment and trying to not allow my feelings to consume me.

The work that resulted was created using some of my Nan’s favourite things, a true homage to her.

We thought this was the end, but a few days later we had a call to say that she was in fact fine.

They had accidentally contraindicated her medications and almost killed her, but now they had rectified this, she was fine.  You can imagine the shock and the surrealness of this moment.  We’d said goodbye and made our peace.  She’s home and back to her old self now.  We got to say hello once more.