Drawing in the Time of Cut Flowers
On Grief, Loss, and Renewal in the Wake of the Pandemic
My first instinct when my grandma died was to purchase and draw flowers for her. A traditional gesture of sympathy, the flowers seemed fitting—but the circumstances were unprecedented.
It was April 2020. My grandma was exposed to COVID in the memory unit of her nursing home and died within the week. Like so many families, we would not be able to gather to mourn her or to say goodbye in person.
I continued to buy flowers in the weeks that followed to enliven that cavernous spring. Time, or what I had understood …
