Embroidering Mum’s fisherman’s smock all started as an act of self care. And now it’s up for an award!
Cutting to the chase, I have a small favour to ask. Please click here and VOTE FOR ME. Or read the rest of this piece and then vote!
At the beginning of 2021 we had just come through the first 9 months of Covid, with strict lockdowns and social isolation. We were heading for another lockdown and I was heading to live in Galloway, 100 miles from home, for several weeks or months (who knew at the outset? Our ability to plan things in any meaningful way was one of the casualties of Covid.. )
I had read research that proved that people who regularly indulged in some crafting activity, something creative, were less likely to break.. and so I joined a global online ‘project’ called #MakeDontBreak. Daily prompts, and sharing on social media helped create a community, and convinced me that a daily habit of stitching or sewing, of making or creating would be key to my wellbeing during this period of isolation.
Of course I hadn’t, at the outset, factored in that within days I would notice that Mum’s behaviour was slightly out of kilter, and that she had the early stages of dementia.
Or that she would gift me her old fisherman’s smock that was her ‘uniform’ for years when she used to work with clay every day, making ceramic models and selling them to people who wanted three dimensional portraits of their animals.
That fisherman’s smock seems to have taken on a life of its own. I have slowly, so slowly, embroidered designs on to the canvas, and with each stitch there is love, but also there are stories. Somehow, the gentle act of stitching has helped me to cope with the world around me, as it changed so dramatically.
I never anticipated that this act of self care, would lead to this blog, and now has been shortlisted as one of three finalists in the JustGiving Creative Fundraiser of the Year Award.
I should have told you sooner, but things have been a bit much this last month or so, more of which another time.
Anyway – the smock popped up in media stories all over the country, like THIS.
I’ve messed this up, but if you read this and have time before 12 noon (Edinburgh time) on Friday 25 August please please click through here and VOTE FOR ME. The winner is decided on a public vote, to be announced at the end of September.
If you have already voted, a thousand million thank yous, you are all such stars.
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Mostly on this blog I write about trying to care for Mum as she developed dementia, which nearly broke me on a number of occasions. Gentle meditative stitching her old Fisherman’s Smock probably saved me as I let everything go to concentrate on those tiny stitches. If you want to read more about my relationship with Mum and her dementia, then you could start here at Taking smock of the Situation.
Finally, if this has moved you, I would really appreciate it if you made a donation towards Alzheimer Scotland. They’re doing stuff that makes living with this more bearable for so many people. Thank you, thank you, forever thank you.
Shewolfinthevalley 
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