Blog Entry: What She Carried – A Concertina Book of Love, Memory, and Quiet Strength

Creating What She Carried was like unfolding a lifetime—one small moment, one tender memory at a time. This concertina book became a deeply personal way for me to honour the love story shared with my husband, Allan. Each page opens to a fragment of our journey: the first connection, letters and courtship, our wedding rings, the home we built together, our children and grandchildren, years of companionship, and the gentleness required when health begins to fade. The book stretches out like a path, showing that love is not a single moment but a continuous unfolding.

Working with cotton rag paper, collage, ink, lino prints, and symbolic objects allowed me to weave text and image together as a form of storytelling. The simplicity of the format—the folding, the pacing, the turning of pages—invited me to move slowly and reflectively. It became a safe space to acknowledge joy, grief, hope, and the sacred ordinariness of everyday life. Making this book reminded me how fragile love is, and how strong it can be at the same time.

More than anything, What She Carried is about devotion. It documents not only what we shared, but what I continue to carry: gratitude for our years together, the memories that shaped us, and the resilience that love teaches. In many ways, this piece helped me navigate the emotional uncertainty surrounding Allan’s illness. Through creating the book, I found a way to hold onto our story gently honouring

the past while facing whatever the future holds with openness and love.

This little book is a reminder that even the smallest objects can hold a whole world inside them AND since I found my Allan, I am a Pumpkin no more!!!