Mourning Collage for my Mother

After being a primary caregiver for Mom during her illness and death, I was pretty churned up. I found it tremendously helpful to work through some of that grief by making small private artworks to both honor her and to express some of what I was feeling. I took some of my favorite stamps,  a couple photos that seemed to work with my idea, and a copy of the program from her funeral service (which also contained the obituary I had just written) and got busy. This is what resulted - I can't tell you how much I treasure this piece. So special and so intimate that I am sharing with you after six years, because I wanted to share it with Laura Fredrickson of Scrapnextras who recently lost her own beloved mother.  Look:
(Click photo for larger view)


I took an inexpensive 8½ x 11 inch document frame from Wal-Mart. I selected this frame becuase it had a fillet that was about half an inch deep, so it had a built in shadowbox space. I have a wonderful good quality set of Italian Maimeri Venezia watercolors which I purchased from Marina Lenzano of Cherry Pie Art Stamps. I also purchased from her the wonderful metallic powders made to mix with them. All the coloring and shimmer you see was done this way. I watercolored the mat, torn pieces from the program, and some beautiful images that I stamped on heavyweight textured watercolor paper. I added emphasis here and there with a white gel pen.

Some of the details:

This scrap was torn from the cover of the funeral service program, which contained her obituary, a poem written in her honor, some appropriate Bible verses, as well as the order of service. I liked it that the title was "A Celebration of LIFE" - because Mom's life was certainly worthy of celebration!

This fabulous sentiment is the same one I use inside my favorite sympathy card: "Christ has made of death a narrow starlit strip between the companionships of yesterday and the reunions of tomorrow" from Wordsworth Stamps. God knows I hope for the reunions of tomorrow! When Mom died, I did not want to hear that it was God's will, or all for the best.  I wanted to hear that I would one day see her again!! I can assure you that that desire has made me a much better Christian, so I can be sure I'll wind up in the good place, as I'm sure she went to heaven.  The starry Milky Way background stamp and the full moon stamp are from Stampscapes.  I found this photo of Mom walking down a path in Ireland, looking back from further down the lane, and I thought it was perfect - she was further along in the journey towards heaven than we are. leading the way.  In Photoshop I colorized and masked everything except her to fit with my sorrowful blue color scheme, printed it on glossy photo paper and trimmed it out. The white handwriting down the right side says "Forever in our hearts."

I tore scraps from the obituary and watercolored them, than scribbled to emphasize certain elements with a white gel pen. Some of the elements included a thank you to the hospice nurses and health aids who enabled us to keep Mom at home until the very end. Support your local hospice workers, they are truly angels on earth. It takes STRONG special people to provide their patients with such loving personal care, knowing they will so soon be gone.

This AMAZING angel image is another stamp from the talented Marina Lenzano of Cherry Pie Art Stamps. I had the good luck to visit her home and see where she designs and presses her stamps. I have hundreds of Cherry Pie stamps - they are some of my very favorites! I watercolored it with the metallic powders mixed in with the paints. I tore the shape out, pulling the margin towards me to create a deep deckle and painted the deckled edge also.  Below that is another scrap from the program with a Bible verse from Matthew: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." This is one of my favorite verses when people have died after a painful illness. I can assure you that death was a blessed release for my mother, and indeed for all of us, by the time the end arrived.

Thoughts:

Some items I would change. I used the same image of her on the path twice. Since then, I have received a copy of her college portait, and I would like to replace the photo in the upper left corner to have the two faces, young and old, instead of the path photo.  This is the portrait I would like to include with her older portrait:

After all this talk of death, I thought I would leave you with a photo of my Mom with one of her granddaughters that really captures her spirit. She was so warm and charming, a wonderful hostess, and such a joy to be around. She was also into crafts and needlework and artwork. We all still miss her SO  MUCH.  But time lets you think of the good times instead of focusing so much on the hole their departure leaves in your heart.

Love you Mom!!!