Pleasantly Confused
2025
Jacquard Knit
Merino wool and acrylic
65cm x 322cm
My Grandma recently had a stroke leaving her with dementia. Overnight she went from being lucid to confused.
The yellow text is an unedited observation from the first time I saw her post stroke. I was shocked at how her personality battles through her confused state. She’s still keen to dance, bake and gossip. She infinitely loves her husband and dutifully hates Meghan Markle. Sadly, she believes she’s in Eastburn chapel, not a state funded care home in Derbyshire.
Layers of family whatsapp’s discussing the stroke and my cousin's announcing their weddings are compiled with family photos post stroke. The sharp red conveys the bleed to her brain that changed all our lives. My Grandad’s life savings which he intended to pass onto family has now been spent on ‘state funded’ care.
She obsesses over her grandchildren’s romantic relationships. She was thrilled when my two cousins got engaged and was so excited at the prospect of a family wedding. It breaks my heart that she will be breathing, living and existing without being present for these two days she’s been yearning for.
Her body will be present for years to come.
But her beautiful lucid mind will not.
