For Ed

I did not know Ed but I made a sculpture of him.

When I looked through the lens to photograph the sculpture, I saw him for the first time, and I saw that he was not with us anymore.

Meningitis took him away from his parents, from his friends and from his future. The meningitis left grief that will remain. It left containers of grief, that spill when jostled or knocked.

The containers are made of egg shells and are so fragile they are almost transparent.

But in time the shells of the eggs will thicken, they will become stronger. The grief will not shrink, it will just be more tightly contained, allowing the shells to move about with more courage. One day they will feel that they can engage freely again with life and they will not break.

 

Ed was a peer mentor at his school and this is in memory of him to give as an award each year to the best peer mentor for years to come.