Memento–Hospice

Title: Hospice
Materials: Wood (scrap), fabric-dotted, fabric-pleather, thread
Dimensions: 3" x 6.5"

Carving the two wood pieces

Laying fabrics across wood as proof of concept

beginning of pinning pleather and trying to find the most efficient solution

Half finished (pinned but not sewn) pleather "bed"

The memory is from just two months ago when I had to rush home to spend the last days of my grandmother's life with her. The hospice was a gentle place, but had an unavoidable air to it. No haunting, only remembering. My grandmother lay dying of starvation after months of dealing with complications from heart failure. It was my first time seeing skin sink down to bone. I sat in the brown leather chair, as she lay in bed wearing a thin mostly white gown. Before she could leave, I made her a gift. My grandparents took me to church many times as a child, and while I am not a christian, I made two crosses. One for her, and one for myself. I wrote her a note, and gave her a cross. Now they are resting with her. And I have the image of a thin but strong woman in my hands.