My mother recently passed away and now I find myself looking for her in places and things that we shared. I am sure I am not alone. I would like to suggest a theme challenge to compose a photographic tribute in memory of a loved one. Any interest??
@lbluejaye8 I am so sorry to learn of your loss. I lost my mom two years ago. It is so hard. This was just kne photo as tribute to my mom, but it is a similar idea I guess...a way to honor my mom who had just passed away.
@espyetta I feel your pain, but I now have more good days than sad days, so I know time eases the pain. I love your creative tribute. I hope the memories you created with her carry you through the rest of your life and that you are able to smile more than cry. Hugs! And a follow!
@lbluejaye8 it does get better. At first, your brain forgets that it has happened...and then you remember and feel how strangely different life has become ...I hated those jolts of reality. Then, you slowly reset your brain...start defining yourself as one who has lost her mother. It is sad, but that helped me. Now I can talk about her, hear her "talking to me" or think of a memory. And just smile. Most of the time.
@espyetta Well said. Have you lost your dad too? I have, and when my mom passed, I felt like an orphan, and in another sense, like I was an adult for the first time at the age of 51! Very bizarre and unexplainable feeling. Your comment about jolts of reality is so true . . . how many times I have wanted to pick up the phone because I forgot and then it hits me . . . continue to think happy thoughts, and I think I have found a new friend!! :)
This is a photograph I took of some crosses that belonged to my mom . . . here's the post for that day:
Last Gift
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I cannot even begin to explain how much these crosses mean to me. My mother wore these crosses constantly. She got them when she was baptized in the Greek Orthodox faith. After being sick and in and out of the hospital, my mother was having one last surgery. She handed these crosses to me before the surgery and asked me to take care of them. She had the surgery, came out fine, and went to a nursing home. She forgot to ask for the crosses. She seemed to be pulling out of the illness that she had sustained (this was on a Thursday), but late Monday night, I got a phone call from the nursing home. She suffered a "stroke" and she was rushed to the hospital. Although she did not die that night, she was brain-dead. We had to make the decision to let God have her. She went peacefully, and her whole family was there . . . it was somehow comforting to us, and in some way, I hope she sensed us there. So, this is the last gift we will ever receive from her, and we all cherish the special crosses. I don't know the religious significance of each cross, but I know the personal one that I hold so dear.
I have a dictionary app on my phone so I look at it everyday. There are little tid bits of info (new every day) today they had an arty term "assemblage" it's a
3D sculpture of sorts, made up of several individual items. Anyway, I'm going to put together these two ideas: assemblage photo tribute of a loved one who has passed. Good luck to me. And I'm going to enter it in your challenge. Thanks for the inspiration!
@traceyhn First of all, honored at your first FAV - what a thrill!! And second, I love your idea. I was thinking I need to get a little notebook and jot down my ideas for composition as I started running through my mind how to enter my own challenge - crazy!! I really like your idea and I'm going to look into it! Good luck!
My mother died in November 2011 soon after I started 365 and it was only this site that kept me going. I found it something to encourage me when she was dying and I posted this picture in July 2012 because like you, I thought of her often and at that time I felt so lost without her. It does get easier as I now think of all the nice things we did together. Mum loved roses that my father had planted and he had died 20 years earlier so I always think of them both when the roses are in full bloom. This is the picture I posted as a tribute to my mum
I know that she would have liked this one and I took her a rose bud into the nursing home just days before she died
@greenpeg David - very wonderful story about the gorse, and I now appreciate its significance. Isn't it curious yet comforting that these seemingly ordinary things can mean so much to us?
@rosiekind Rosie - just beautiful - I can smell its delicate fragrance. Thank you for sharing your story. I know that this site has helped me work through a lot of feelings, and for me, writing is therapeutic, so using visual images that engage me and stimulate me is a perfect match for the writing. My grandmother loved roses and had them just about everywhere, and to this day, while I'm not keen on many flower smells, roses always comforts me and makes me think of my loving grandmother. Following you and a FAV!
My maw-maw used to perm her hair all the time, so today when I got my hair permed, I took this shot of myself because it reminded me of her so much. http://365project.org/taraglenn/365/2013-07-02
@espyetta Mary Beth captures this so well. My mother is still well at 90, but her comments remind me so much of when my father died. That idea of a jolt really captures the feeling. I would find myself thinking that I wanted to tell him something, then that jolt that I couldn't. It does get easier with time, remembering the shared times and the happiness instead of the empty feeling.
@taffy :0) I have had two times to figure out that that was what was going on...once when my dad died in 2007 and then my mom in 2011. In many senses, time does heal the wound. But every now and then, you sort of rip it back open for a moment. Those moments stink, but mostly I just remember my mom as her happy, younger self....and all the good times and how LUCKY I was to have her for even 10 or 20 years of my life, much less 46 years.
@taffy@espyetta Well put, ladies. My dad wasn't as big a part of my life as my mother, although Ioved him dearly for who he was as well as who he wasn't, so for me, the loss of my mother hurts more deeply than I ever thought it could. She really was my only parent, as they divorced and I had to move from New York to South Carolina at 14 1/2 years old (talk about culture shock!). I wholeheartedly understand those reality jolts. For the longest time, I even kept her number on my phone and would call (even though it said disconnected) just to comfort myself a little. So when those jolts happen, to me, it feels like being thrown against a wall or falling down steps, but they are getting less painful. Hugs to you both.
My husband was killed in a car accident not long after I started this project in 2010. Most of my project is a tribute to him in one way or another.
But this is a little something I put together for my children to celebrate the force of nature that was their father and how much he valued family above all else.... http://365project.org/corymbia/life-as-we-know/2013-05-01
@corymbia Amanda - if I could reach through the screen and give you hug, I would! I'm crying over the touching video you put together - your husband's memory lives on in his beautiful children (and I mean gorgeous!) and I can only imagine that they are just as beautiful inside! He would be super proud of them and you for learning how to get through life without him. I am inspired by your video and really think we have made a connection. I am so happy that this tribute suggestion (and we haven't even started the competition yet!!) has brought so many of us together. I feel renewed every time I see that little red message thing at the top of this page and click on it and read these remarkable stories! I have a new friend in Australia and I'm a followerer now! Thank you for taking the time to sto and share your story and amazing video with me, Amanda!
I will start this challenge after the theme-retro challenge ends this weekend. I am going to figure this out - can't be too hard, and I say we already have some winners - just scroll up!!
My dad died in 1997 and I always used his coffee mug after that. Then I dropped it and kept a shard for a long time until a former classmate took the shard and made it into necklaces.
@pandorasecho What a beautiful idea and a loving friend! Thank you for sharing. I have several of my mom's coffee cups, too, and I cannot even tell you how many cups of coffee we shared. My favorite cup is her tiger-print coffee mug . . . she loved tigers! Her screen name was "Tygerlulu" (her dog's name was Lulu). :)
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Last Gift
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I cannot even begin to explain how much these crosses mean to me. My mother wore these crosses constantly. She got them when she was baptized in the Greek Orthodox faith. After being sick and in and out of the hospital, my mother was having one last surgery. She handed these crosses to me before the surgery and asked me to take care of them. She had the surgery, came out fine, and went to a nursing home. She forgot to ask for the crosses. She seemed to be pulling out of the illness that she had sustained (this was on a Thursday), but late Monday night, I got a phone call from the nursing home. She suffered a "stroke" and she was rushed to the hospital. Although she did not die that night, she was brain-dead. We had to make the decision to let God have her. She went peacefully, and her whole family was there . . . it was somehow comforting to us, and in some way, I hope she sensed us there. So, this is the last gift we will ever receive from her, and we all cherish the special crosses. I don't know the religious significance of each cross, but I know the personal one that I hold so dear.
3D sculpture of sorts, made up of several individual items. Anyway, I'm going to put together these two ideas: assemblage photo tribute of a loved one who has passed. Good luck to me. And I'm going to enter it in your challenge. Thanks for the inspiration!
I know that she would have liked this one and I took her a rose bud into the nursing home just days before she died
But this is a little something I put together for my children to celebrate the force of nature that was their father and how much he valued family above all else....
http://365project.org/corymbia/life-as-we-know/2013-05-01
My dad died in 1997 and I always used his coffee mug after that. Then I dropped it and kept a shard for a long time until a former classmate took the shard and made it into necklaces.