Losing a Father

"Daddy was an intensely private person. Very reserved. Shy almost"  she says. I notice this in the drawn portrait, the same one chosen for the order of service. Buried in his newspaper, unengaged with the viewer, it manages to do something quite remarkable – present him to the public whilst preserving his privacy. She agrees: "We weren’t thinking in terms of essence, we didn’t use that word, but I think that essence is exactly what we were getting at when we chose that image."

 

In the downstairs rooms of the house the photos are also for public consumption – weddings and family occasions dominate. But photos displayed in bedrooms seem to have more intimate and individual meanings. Her favourite photo of him, the one she would rescue in a fire, is a bedroom dresser photo -  as much a part of her as the jewellery and perfume it nestles beside. Compared to living room photos, bedroom photos of the deceased are displayed with a kind of jealousy: closely loved and guarded – maybe representing a side of the person, or relationship, known only to the photo’s owner.

Losing a Father