Life’s Last Chapter
Katie Driver
I chose to paint a place close to my heart – Camber Sands. It was this beach and Whitstable harbour that my nan loved and wanted to visit while she was suffering from breast cancer. I chose to paint the seascape in dark greens and blues with flashes of white/bright colours. I feel that this injects emotion into the painting that reflects how I imagine a patient in palliative care may be feeling. The dark colours represent death and dying but the central whites bring the piece to life in the same way that I believe revisiting a favourite place would make a patient feel – like it made my nan feel.
In writing this piece I have had the opportunity to look back on the time I spent with my nan before she died. I am overwhelmingly grateful that we were in a position to be able to take her to the beach and that she was in a hospice with beautiful gardens that she could enjoy. I realise that for some people it is not possible to go outside or go to their favourite place due to the nature of their condition. In these cases, it may be possible to bring a sense of place into their home or the hospital through art. This was what I hoped to achieve when I painted and donated a large canvas of Whitstable harbour to Maidstone Hospital’s breast cancer ward. It was humbling to receive a thank you letter from one of the patients at the hospital who said how comforting the painting was and how much it had brightened up her visits to the ward. This is an example of where the power of art in medicine is clear. I now recognise the importance of art in medicine and hope to use this in my future practice as a doctor. I have a passion for art and so am excited by the prospect that by painting, and doing something I enjoy, I can also be helping others.
I feel passionately, after my own experiences, that enriching life’s last chapter with new memories from places that patients love or providing comforting artwork will bring a new sense of happiness to patients in Palliative care.
To me, this picture signifies the light and guidance that a doctor can be when a patient and their family are facing challenges ahead. Despite the darkeness and rough sea, the moon shines brightly and strongly, to light the path of the people on the shore. Also, it shows that the medical world and the doctor within that is seen by everyone and plays a role in everyone’s life.
This piece entitled Life’s Last Chapter made me reflect upon my own attitudes towards both life and death. I feel in today’s society we talk openly about our quality of life, but often shy away from discussing our preferences in regard to death. Perhaps to enhance the quality of end of life care we should look to explore how we feel about the process of death and crucially understanding what we can do to make the most of our time towards the end of life. This painting reminds us that these considerations are not only important for the patient but also for those close to them. When thinking over my own ideas on this matter, I also gravitated towards the outdoors, much like the lady described in this passage. Personally, I know that a short walk outdoors never fails to improve my mood. For me, there is something about being out in the open, in touch with nature that makes you check in with your mind and self. This real challenge comes when we think about how to adapt end of life care to these preferences. As acknowledged by the artist there are some situations where a patient can’t be moved from a specialised care environment. When exploring this issue, ethical questions such as ‘should treatment be compromised in favour of aligning end of life care to patient’s wishes?’ come to light. Ultimately the best interests of the individual must be assessed in relation to all aspects of their life. Terry Pratchett expressed his views on whole-patient end of life in Shaking Hands with Death, reminding us that we must not only enjoy our lives but also have a “death worth dying for”.
Having done a few shadowing sessions on a palliative care ward, I can see how this painting really captures how many patients’ view their end of life. True, it is a dark time as one is dying but light can still shine through at moments, could be spending time with the family etc. I personally like the touch of having the outline of two figures on the beach, for me this represents that patients are never truly alone on the last chapter with the second figure being a doctor, relative or friend.
Having recently undergone the journey of breast cancer with my own mother this piece is very close to home for me. What I particularly like is the fact that the artist chose to not only to portray death (using dark colours) but also a form of inner piece which can be seen in the use of white colours. I really like the image of the beach as to me the ocean represents an unstoppable cyclic force similar to death. Even though life does go on the same way the ocean waves keep coming it once in a while takes. Personally, I believe that the idea of bringing something close to the patients heart into the palliative care ward is extremely important and has to potential to make the patients last months more bearable. Hospital wards can often be bleak and depressing but by bringing the patient a sense of home it makes the ward itself feel better.
Even without its title this piece conveys a sense of both hope and despair regarding death and palliative care. The overwhelmingly dark color palette and the ominous ocean can be seen as heading to the depths of ones life. In my opinion the light from the moon is not a symbol of whats to come but instead the people, family, doctors and nurses which illuminates ones final chapter. This light pierces through the dark clouds and darkness, entering the world of the patient. My experience with palliative care is similar, medical staff try their best to befriend a patient at the end of their life, providing company, empathy, and encouraging them to face it with a sense of inevitability and peace.
I found this piece to be both sombre and peaceful, and in that way, I feel that it represents both the fear and the acceptance of death. The dark colours around the edges represent the fear of death and the experience of dying, which can be painful, terrifying and lonely and the whole painting retains this tone, with dark sea, sky, sands and even figures being painted in muted and drab colours. However, the bright sun remains in the centre, shining through the middle third of the painting and illuminating the sea and beach. To me this represents both the acceptance of death as inevitable, but also the light of a fulfilling life and how death is simply part of it. I feel that it also represents the role of the doctor in palliative care, and that although it is potentially a bleak role to watch their patients die, it is also a noble and positive thing to help guide someone through the last chapter of their life and allow them to die as peacefully and as painlessly as possible, something that I feel is represented by how the suns rays shine through and part the darkness in this painting.