I’ve been feeling grief as a physical force, its pushed and
pulled at my body like a lead weight, as I write my head is pounding, my
shoulders aching, one minute I feel sick, the next an appetite for the comfort
of sugar, my teeth and gums are receding, my hair and skin lack lustre and most
of all I feel overwhelmingly exhausted, I’m trying to flow with it, ride the
waves, accept.
My dad's funeral was last week. Since then I have been clearing out his flat, right now allocating new spaces to his belongings. It’s a tough, important, painful job, but satisfying when it works, finding new life for cherished objects. That’s what this bit of writing is all about. Phil and I in our work with arthur+martha often explore the power of objects, but never have I experienced first hand the heart wrenching effect so clearly on myself and my sisters.
My dad's death was pretty sudden, my eldest sister and I
entered his flat the next day and found it as if he had just bobbed out. His
quilt pushed half way back, his slippers in place, a unsmoked cigarette in the
ash tray, milk in the fridge. I didn’t want to move those slippers until the
last day of the clear up, not out of anything morbid, but rather they were dad
somehow.
Dad was a retired architect, his sense of design, music,
art, have enormously informed, inspired and educated my sisters and I. His
small one bedroom flat was full of objects collected over the years, 80% of
which had memories attached for one or all of us. There were voyages of
mystery, discovery and delight to; a box with five beautiful Christening gowns,
who did they belong to? And in the same box a child’s tartan kilt and shorts
worn by my dad, I have a photo of him wearing them on my wall, but why didn’t
he show me the real item when he was alive? And perhaps most poignant a single child’s leather glove. My
sister has it - so she can hold dad's hand.
The history and life of these objects carry on. Each one now
has to have a life time of chain-smoking removed from it, brought into the
light a space found for it. Musical instruments will be played again, (dad getting his own back, my noisy
kids playing them) cooking pots will no longer be simply on show, but used,
records played and song along to. I will share my memories of the objects with
my children and they in turn will add another layer of history to them. They
will take on new meaning and new importance and stay treasured items for future
generations, although over time I’m sure a few will end broken,
un-sentimentally sold or given away to the charity shop.
Writing this down helps to make sense of the process, just
as writing and speaking the eulogy for my dads funeral helped. I’m told the
first year is the hardest.
