Extreme Knitting Redhead: A Peruvian Prize

Friday, August 24, 2007

A Peruvian Prize

Oooer missus, I've won first prize in a photo competition! It was run by Peruvian Connection and you had to send a photo of yourself wearing something from their collection, not necessarily from the current one, and just give some brief information about the occasion. We were going out to look at a new horse a while back and I wore a jacket I bought from them last year so Mike took a photo of me standing in the back garden and it won, beating off competition from all over the world. Here's a link to the winning photo and you can see the other winners too if you press the arrows. I really love their clothes and they have a good work ethic of fair trade with the South American artisans with whom they work.

I don't think I've ever won a competition before in my life and we could hardly believe it when they phoned to let us know. Guess what the prize is? £500 to spend on their lovely clothes. Just imagine if I had that amount to spend on knitting yarn.............stash heaven!

What? Mum's won a prize? But she's nowhere near as pretty as me!

Well, I hope she gets some more carrier bags, I just love this purple one.

1 comment:

Heldasland said...: thats so fantastic, the cats look so cute.; August 30, 2007 at 6:34:00 PM PDT

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.