I'm creating a set of 44 Wisdom Cards and Book - each card will be inspired by someone who has meant something to me, someone who has inspired me or taught me something. They could be people I know, or people I don't know, living or passed over, or they may be people I have loved from afar, animals and elements from the planet around me, from dreamtime and with symbolism that I can’t recognise. What I know for sure is, it will all unfold. If you'd like to read more about this project, click here
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Pass The Memory On
Keep alive the personalities and characters of those people in your past and share the
memories with those in your present.
Background to the
card:
This
card is inspired by my Grandpa Julius.
I never met him as he died 8 years before I was born, but I was named
after and although I never knew him or met him, his memory has been kept going by
my mum, his daughter. She carried
on telling us about him, his ‘sayings’, his quirks, his heartaches and there
was always a relevant story to share when both my sister and I went through
problems or exciting developments in our lives.
I
have a bundle of letters that Grandpa Jules wrote to my mother whilst he was in
hospital in 1959. Unfortunately he
collapsed on the night of her wedding after she had left for her
honeymoon. Nobody told her. Of course at that time, you just wouldn’t want to worry a
newly married couple. If only she
had known how precious those next sixth months would be.
His
letters tell of his stoic attitude towards his healing. He never wrote about his
life fading on this earth but talked often of his sadness at not being able to
share in her new life. In one of his letters he writes, “please thank everyone
who is enquiring after me” and he went on to mention how sad he felt when the
nursing staff forgot to tell him, one morning, that mum had telephoned. He noted, “they look after our bodies
but never our minds.”
The meaning behind
the card:
If
this card has appeared to you, it comes to give you a powerful message of
passing memories on. Maybe you seek information about family members long ago,
this card invites you to create your own family book that records the people
who may be forgotten.
The
painting is of a younger Julius, a tailor by profession, who was very adept at
creating wonderful suits and dresses. As I was creating this image and the
surrounding painting I was pulled to bring him into the current day and give
him a vibrant colourful shirt and include his sewing machine. This was a part of his very essence. The painting also contains photocopies
of the letter he had written, including copies of the stamps from the time in1959.
How to use this card:
The
card appearing to you is a nudge to go and speak to older relatives in your
family or community to find out more.
Ask them about their relatives and about their lives gone-by. Video them, take photos and create
memories. Keep them safe. Pass them on. After all, it was my mum who kept these
63 year old letters safe and passed on his memory to me. Contemplate on this card – do you wish to know more about
someone in your family/community?
Would you like to record this for your future relations? Do you want to
write more letters to loved ones? Feel what resonates with you and know this
card is a reminder to act on it.
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Much Love
Jules xxx
PS Text may change in final
copy.
All photographs and text copyright of
Julia Dolowicz
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