A woman in her 80’s had been struggling with her heart since 2022. During the same year, she lost her sight within one week. Alongside her heart diagnosis, this felt like an impossible circumstance and was extremely hard for her to cope with. She explained that she felt that the stress of all this was the cause for the end in her marriage. Three unimaginable events happened to this woman in a matter of months -and she was not able to predict any of it.

She shared that she feels very hopeless and concerned about her own health. She was worried she might not ever be able get the procedure before it is too late and very tired of being an in-patient at two hospitals.

I decided to creatively explore how she is living with a heart which is a ‘ticking time-bomb’. There is nothing to say for certain that her heart will stay in a stable condition long enough for her to receive the appropriate treatment. All she has, is waiting and hoping that it doesn’t  ‘go off’ before she is able to receive the surgery.

I chose to use a grenade to symbolise this predicament as I feel they can be unpredictable, just like her heart. This also links with the many stories she generously shared with me about her previous employment in the Royal Naval Service.