Date Night
Dinner and an art gallery artist talk
There is a First Friday Art Walk in a town close to me.
Friday night is date night for the hubby and me, and you see,
it was on First Friday. So, one of my favorite things is forever going to be
the artist talk. Questions are answered after their talk. And there were bee
photos and bee art on display. And the title of the display is about their
Grief. Did the artist lose their bees? No, the bees belonged to their father,
who was lying there dying from a rare, deadly form of cancer.
It was sisters who came to talk about their work, one from London
and the other from Minnesota, where their dad lived. Death was sudden,
diagnosed, and then a short while later, gone. Taking photos of the lone
bees, separated, reminded her of what she was living through. Alone,
her sister lives in London and was not able to join her at the time.
Having the bees helped her. When she shared with her sister, it was prime
time to work on this project around grief. It helped both sisters to heal.
One felt guilty as she couldn’t be there, and one felt that she couldn’t deal
with it to be of much support to their father
or their mother.
~~
Two others spoke about their art, and one who lived out of state was unable to be there. Their feelings were expressed through their powerful work. Then they had a box for putting a piece of paper in with a list of your grief. At the end of their talk, I wrote a list of grief that looked like the following:
Grief — Big Belief — In Grief
So sad
1964-Dad
60s-Grandmother
70s-uncle and other
80s-Divorce
No recourse
85–99 2nd marriage
divorce —and grieving my age
2000–2025 sends
me to too many ends
2004 marriage and children
more grandchildren
more great-grandchildren
2009-Mother
2010-Sister
2011-granddaughter
2012–2013 Cancer
2014–2021 in-laws
Father-in-law
mother-in-law
hubby’s aunts
recovery friends
2021-pandemic-brother
COVID-19 friend's husband
Cancer friend and
more covid friends
Author's note: Even though it was an enjoyable evening for the most part, writing the list brought back much loss! I believe in grief work and have done most of the work I have needed to do. Tears, Laughter, Art, Memorials, Wiping of Tears, Cedar Ceremonies, Giveaways, Fundraising events, and more are all healing, and I participate in them all!
~~~~
First published by Write Under The Moon on medium.com
About the Creator
Denise E Lindquist
I am married with 7 children, 28 grands, and 13 great-grandchildren. I am a culture consultant part-time. I write A Poem a Day in February for 8 years now. I wrote 4 - 50,000 word stories in NaNoWriMo. I write on Vocal/Medium daily.
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Comments (4)
If it helps you to cope go for it. Great work on this piece of writing.
When you put these things in a list like you have done, it really brings home the many events that shape our lives.
Gosh that must have been so hard for them to deal with. My heart goes out to them
It's amazing how much art helps with the grieving process.