February - 2022

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother

Feb 26

An interview with Marysia Kohn. 'What kept you going?'

This interview with mum is part of the ID’44 (IDentity 1944) series by the artist Agata di Masternak, where she Interviews Holocaust Survivors and the 2nd and 3rd generations. The project is a warning and reminder of what can happen if we don’t learn from the past. It is also a memorial for those who want to share their stories with the artist as well as reflections on positive change for the future. https://www.agatadimasternak.me/id44-interviews The topics covered in the in

Jane

Feb 23

Magic Drawing Days

21.7.21 Mum always said she ‘painted with her eye’. What I think she meant was she didn’t have the talent to paint with her hands, but instead, she studied the world around her with an artist's eye. When she looked at you for a long time, you knew she was painting you. But I do remember when I was little, watching mum talk for ages on the home phone while doodling all sorts of faces on scraps of paper. Now, a lifetime has passed and her days are quiet. It is time to doodle ag

Jane

Feb 8

Come quickly, mum’s fallen over.

4.2.22 We’ve had some drama these past few days. Thursday evening around midnight, while I was getting ready for bed, I heard mum pottering in the lounge room. And then I heard a clunk. There she was sprawled on the floor. She must have pulled Som Chai (my pretend husband) down with her, because he was lying in a tangle next to her. I couldn’t get her up, so I shook Yasha out of his deep sleep. It’s not uncommon to wake Yasha up in the early hours of the night. Mum falls ove

Mum is 97 or maybe 98, according to the Lodz Ghetto records. Till now, she has lived a rich and vibrant life, despite living through the war and its aftermath. In 2017, after dad died, she made the decision to move in with me. Instead of feeling burdened, I embraced the change and the opportunity to care for her.

These posts capture mum’s precious last years living with me in my home - a ‘share home’ - with other family members and housemates - who all support, appreciate and love having her around.

Many of us are not familiar or get a chance to be involved in the lives of the very old. I wanted to documents the years with mum as a record for the generations to come, (and others who might be interested) that reveal the daily joys and challenges of caring for a loved one with dementia.

As an afterthought, we know that mum hasn’t always been old. In these posts I also aim to include the heart-felt and awe inspiring stories from her earlier years.

MY PERFECT MAN

My Man in Melbourne

An Ode to a Human Painting Machine

Ketubot/Marriage Contracts

An Ode to a Human Painting Machine

janeKormanART

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother

An interview with Marysia Kohn. 'What kept you going?'

Magic Drawing Days

Come quickly, mum’s fallen over.