My life, as I knew it, changed on 7 June 2022 when my mother was admitted to hospital, she required pain relief for an ongoing condition, instead she caught COVID-19, developed sepsis, and pneumonia. After 2 months in hospital, I took her home. My mother died on 21 August 2022 with me, my brother, and one of her sisters around her bed.

Meanwhile, my aunty who I was also very close to, had dementia which was extremely aggressive. She died with me next to her on 13 July 2023.

I had been away from Birmingham for 40 years, living in London for almost 20 years where I had my own business. I left everything to go back to Birmingham to care for my mother and my aunt.

In one year I had 2 major deaths, the end of a 17-year relationship, we had to sell the assets of our successful business and I moved from London to Birmingham where I grew up. With these multiple losses, I had a year of grief counselling which rescued my mental health. After so many life-changing events in a few months, I needed a routine, I wasn’t emotionally fit to work so I returned to being creative again.

During the lockdowns, I went out regularly to watch and paint the sunrise. 21 August 2023 was the first anniversary of my mother’s death, I decided to do something positive at the start of that day by going out to paint the sunrise from a hill overlooking where she is buried. I will continue to paint the sunrise every day from wherever I am, regardless of the weather, until 21 August 2024.

Doing this began simply as a way to get outside every day but it has given me a purpose in my life and it has now started to provide me with an income as people seem to relate to my paintings and are buying the paintings on the date of their significant anniversaries. The simple act of painting a sunrise each morning has changed my life and helped me to heal and live again.