Mel Pettit Photography

It has been a long time since my last post, far longer than I intended.  The idea behind the blog was to record shoots and some of the behind the scenes stuff that went on.  In short, I wanted this to be a blog purely based on my photography and nothing else.   All was going well, until events around Christmas, and now I’m going to be a little bit indulgent.

Mum as a young woman

The remainder of my immediate family (we’re getting few and far between now) had planned to get my aging Mum to my younger brother’s place for Christmas lunch.  We got her there, but she felt unwell and wanted to return back to her care home where she felt much more comfortable.  Her dementia was hitting her hard and any change to her routine was just too much for her to bear, so we took her back.   Little did I know that was to be the last time that I would ever hold a reasonable and understandable conversation with her.

After Christmas her condition worsened and she picked up  a nasty chest infection.  At 87, and with dementia, she went downhill fast.   A trip to hospital and a release just a day after was followed by another bout of illness in the care home and her return to hospital for the final time.

The family minus 1.

To cut a long story short, despite the best care the hospital could give her, Mum weakened daily and we watched her go downhill very quickly.  She no longer wanted to fight her illness, she had already told us some weeks ago that she had been through enough and we watched her slip away slowly.  We were lucky to be with as the time came, holding her hand and talking to her although the conversation was totally one way.  On the 7th January, around 9:30pm, my brother, his partner and I decided we would be better getting some sleep in case we were called during the night so we went away and left her sleeping peacefully.  No sooner had we got away and started getting ready for bed the hospital called and said she had slipped away around an hour after we had left.

Mum, Dad, younger brother and me at Butlins!

It’s taken me a little longer to get over my Mum’s passing and shoots were put on hold.   the time has come now to sort all of that out, and get back to work.

If you’ve got this far, then well done!  My indulgence is over and it’s time to start working and posting again.  My photographic appetite is back, and I’m looking forward to lots more shoots.   Here we go, and thanks Mum for being the best.