Hope's Garden.
Sally.
Photography.
:::
about the piece.
Sally describes her photograph, "After Hope died, we had more time to ourselves than we knew what to do with. We were both on parental leave to care for the baby who never came home with us. So instead of taking care of the baby who didn't make it, we took care of our barren garden, which we had never really laid a finger on until that point. We'd been in the house only just a year and we had meant to tidy up the garden, but then watching my big belly grown got in the way and we never made the time. We figured if we had any time after the baby arrived, we might do some gardening. Oh how we dreamed of the days of taking our little baby in to the garden with us to watch and help.
"I spent much of my spare time in the months after Hope died in the garden. We dug things up, planted new things, landscaped, put vegetables and herbs in pots and the garden became the thing we nurtured and watched grow in place of our daughter.
And given that she died at the end of winter (here in the southern hemisphere) it was a perfect time to do it through the spring and summer months. It also saved me from getting outside and seeing all the happy people out there carrying their lovely, living babies around.
"Every day we were in the garden, it seemed I would see a ladybug. I saw them in my car, and at the garden supply shop when I was buying new plants. They were everywhere.
"Then one day, taking a few pics of the new garden and the "Hope" stone that we placed in the middle of it, we saw this - a ladybug crawling across it.
These were taken in late December 2008, and I'm not sure I have seen a ladybug since. For all those months I felt like they were a sign from her, but now they're gone. And it is just another small thing to be sad about."
about the contributor.
Sally is a mother to her lost daughter Hope, stillborn at 40 weeks and 5 days in August 2008 and her brand new son Angus, born alive and screaming in November 2009. She maintains the blog Tuesday's Hope.
Oh Sally, the ladybirds gave me such comfort last year, and then they all went to sleep for the winter. Yesterday at the beach I saw the first ladybird of the year and silly as it might be I felt like Florence was with us on our trip to see Grandma.
ReplyDeleteHope's stone is lovely, and the garden sounds beautiful too. x
More than once I felt like gardening has saved my sanity. I'm glad your garden brought you so much distraction and comfort. Love the Hope-stone. xoxo
ReplyDeleteI like to spend time in Henry's garden. It's my one ritual on his birthday. Friends and family gave us many of the plants in there, and each year I buy something, my little birthday present for my not-here boy.
ReplyDeleteI think of Hope everytime i see a lady bug Sally. Every single time!
ReplyDelete