Tag: in her own language (Page 12 of 16)

We start with this from Nancy:

Then there’s this from me:

And all at once, that’s it; we no longer know
what it’s all about, but we are deep inside it,
and now we will never see with the same eyes.

from Emerging by
Pablo Neruda

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

Nancy does this:

And I do this:

My translation may not be yours:
translation is a tricky business.
~ Catherine Harper

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

I started this project 43 days ago today, and I am still loving it. And I haven’t missed a day of stitching/posting. Though it added a something else to do in days already bulging with tasks of love and loathe, it has strangely given a rhythm to my days, something I’ve longed for since last November when Andy retired. (Of course it also helps that I turned many of my work-in-the-family-business responsibilities over to him and it helps even more that he graciously agreed to take them on.) I am still thoroughly enjoying this project. I look forward to each day’s stitching, and sometimes – every now and then – I look forward to when they’ve all been stitched.

Which will be a while because left to right: stitched, ready to be stitched, waiting to be readied to be stitched. And those journals above the 3 stacks? Those are the journals she filled with more drawings when we went to visit her two weeks ago.

Here’s today’s drawing:

And today’s stitching:

And here are the panels I stitched last week. (I’ll eventually get myself back on track and post them in order drawn. I’m not sure that makes a difference, but I sense it does.)

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

Yep, we’re skipping around again. Hope it doesn’t make you seasick or give you whiplash. Here’s drawing #46:

And here’s cloth #46:

“When greater depth is desired, it is often wise to lessen speed.” – Old Chinese Proverb

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

First, she draws:

Then I stitch:

I really like and appreciate
the way she sees Nancy and this project.
Living in a thin place.
In constant contact with the creator of purple.
Yes. Oh my goodness, yes.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

Her 34th drawing:

My 34th stitching:

“Music expresses
that which cannot be
put into words
and cannot
remain silent.”
~ Victor Hugo ~

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.

First Nancy draws:

Then I stitch:

Mary asked if Nancy speaks when she draws, and no, she doesn’t. Interesting thing about Nancy and talking . . . at times in the past, she’s been criticized for talking too much. At times it was like she was on a short loop, repeating the same things over and over and over again. I think it was a sign she was excited about something, but who knows. Now she’s quieter, more reserved, and some voice concern over that, saying it points to early onset alzheimer’s. I have my own thoughts about that, but I’ll keep those to myself. And as I reminded my husband last week, their dad was extremely quiet. I notice that Andy acquires more of his dad’s mannerisms with age, perhaps Nancy does, too. Seems reasonable to me.

And she does talk – she’s not completely mute. Last week when she got into the convertible, for example, she looked at me and softly asked if we were going to see Penny. (Penny is a former caregiver whom Nancy adores and vice versa.) When Angela and I were down there in June, I arranged a surprise lunch for Nancy with Penny. Perhaps Nancy remembered and made that association. Who knows? Who cares where her her question came from? And she said several other things to me that afternoon. She assured me that she likes riding in a convertible, for example, and when I asked, she said yes, she wanted to draw. In other words, she talked to me about things she’s interested in enough to spill a few words.

When she draws, Nancy simply draws and smiles. Her smile is consistent, never wavering. As you can see in this video, she has her tongue to one side of her mouth like any young child intent on what they are doing. For decades, Nancy has chewed on her tongue. There’s frequently a lot of buzz and fuss about that, but she doesn’t bite hard enough to cause injury to herself, and want to know a secret? For as long as I can remember, I have occasionally lightly chewed on my tongue just because it feels good, kinda’ stimulating. Wakes me up. Tunes me into the present. Me? I think it quite possible that Nancy lightly chews her tongue for the sensation just like I think that’s why she enjoys riding in a convertible as much as she obviously does: engagement of all the senses. The wind blowing against her skin and through her hair, the road of the wind, the smell, the sounds of things outside and nearby. Maybe riding in a convertible makes her feel totally alive.

It’s all theory, of course, but three things I am absolutely sure of: 1) Nancy loves drawing. 2) Her drawings are art. 3) Her drawings are her own language, her own voice. Through her drawings, Nancy speaks.

(Note: You might want to mute this before viewing. As I said, Nancy doesn’t make any sound while drawing, but there is conversation happening all around her that’s really not all that interesting.)

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. I seem to have gotten us all out of order by traveling down the mountain but leaving the supply and stitching bag up on top of the mountain. I had a system, you see, using narrow strips that were leftover from making the panels, I’d write the number of each drawing on a little block of fabric and pin it to the back of the cloth panel. When I started posting on 7/1/2012, a happy accident occurred and each drawing corresponded to the date on the calendar. But by #32, I needed to back my ears and (a) do math or (b) develop a system. My system involved using a narrow strip of fabric leftover from when I made the cloth panels, cutting the strip into little blocks and writing the drawing number and the date of posting on each one. That worked great . . . for two whole days.

Fortunately (and for reasons I can’t explain), I had some drawings and some cloth, and being down the mountain and back in the land of convenience, I was able to purchase needles and floss and the other things I needed, so on Thursday, we skipped ahead by 10, and carried on.

Today, here’s #33. Will we get back on track now? I don’t really know. When I first realized I’d left the bag that held everything neatly organized and all laid out to keep me stitching uninterrupted through the traveling, I was distraught and aggravated. But I quickly developed a plan b and kept going. Now I’m thinking that creativity isn’t neatly organized, and it seldom goes according to plan. So maybe being off track puts us right smackdab on track, you know what I mean?

And here’s what the week looked like:

We’ll talk more tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.