My Grandma was quite the character. When I was younger and visited with my Dad he would sit in the chair in the corner and read the paper, she'd snipe "do you not want to see me?". He'd always wind her up saying no, she had me to talk to. Then she started to look after Katies dog. Connor, so my Dad would hype up the dog as much as he could, then leave. She always moaned but secretly she loved it. As I got older every time I visited we watched the same programmes together. Jeremy Kyle, Midsomer Murders, occasionally Loose Women and some sort of house decorating show. She didn't go anywhere but she still knew everything. All the dirty gossip you could guarantee you would get from Grandma and a regular update of who had died. Grandmas house was the meeting point for the whole family, you would just bump in to other people when you were there, aunty, uncle, cousin, neighbour. The whole lot.
This project makes me miss home more than I could possibly imagine. I think I've been homesick more times this semester than I have in the entire three years I've been at university so far. There are times I want to be able to go home and cry to my Mum and Dad, or times when I want to be able to show them what I'm making. I want my whole family to be proud of the work we are making together about my Grandma. It is work that we are making because without them there is no way at all I would be able to put this together. I do feel quite cheeky, asking everybody for so much help with it, grabbing them all for photographs and memories and Grandmas photographs. No doubt dragging up tons of emotion at the same time.
Every week I get frustrated with this project. Every week I cry at least once reading everybones memories of Grandma. Every week I want to stop working on it and find a distraction of a project instead. But every week I am drawn back to the project because I am determined to make it work and make it a success.
The pictures I'm about to share with you aren't necessarily the best photos from the work I've produced but they are the fun ones. The ones that show just how much enjoyment can still come from an emotional project like this one. These are the pictures I go back to whenever I want to just sit and cry about the work. I call them the out-takes.
When this work is finished, if I could exhibit it and raise money for Macmillan Nurses I would be the happiest of girls. If I could get this clan to help me organise it too, that would be even better. But I best not tell them that bit yet - I'm already asking a lot. I want the work to be exhibited up North, not in Cheltenham. This is still a way away yet so lets not get too far ahead.
This post might not make much sense to you. I hope it does. It's just splurged out my head. Really really fast too.
Later, I'll post a link to an up to date piece of the book.
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