THE BEAUTY OF LIVING AND DYING

This project was born out of grief, a time when my Father was dying and the world had been locked down in 2020.

For weeks, my only escape was a handful of flowers, a piece of black cardboard, and a small space. 

Some of my flowers were in the stages of dying, just like my Father. I studied them curiously as they changed shape and form, finding them enchanting just as they were when they were in full bloom. I saw my Father as an old man at the end of his life, still dignified, as the lines blurred with the tall, handsome man I knew as a child. 

I sat embroidering my flowers with my Father, sharing stories, memories, laughter, and tears as he gently surrendered to saying goodbye. I stitched little bits of gold on a leaf or a stamen, like one would embellish a couture gown, or to pay my respects to the creativity of Mother Nature. In each gold stitch, our stories — our past, the present, the old, the new, and the heartbreak of passing — were sewn together.

In the heightened awareness of death, the smallest things seemed to hold great wonder. I saw life in all its stages as ethereal and fragile, and discovered even in dying, in heartbreaking circumstances, there can be beauty, grace, and dignity.