An artist is documenting her thoughts around grief in a series of simple yet relatable drawings.
A few years back, Mari Andrew’s father passed away from a heart attack. Since then, she’s been navigating a rocky road of emotions - from being completely overwhelmed by sadness to learning to live with her loss.
To deal with this intense period, Andrew created illustrations about bereavement and her experience.
She explained on Instagram: “It’s different for everyone, but my personal experience is that grief doesn’t ever go away, but it does change shape and it becomes something you can hold rather than something that overwhelms you -a part of you, rather than a burden.”
Grief is a complex emotion to navigate and everyone will grieve differently. Perhaps what’s most important about the bereavement process, however, is that the people who experience it don’t bottle it up.
As Janet Morrison, the chief executive of Independent Age, puts it: “We know that it’s really important to open up about the death of a loved one and not keep things bottled up or try to remain stoic.
“Everyone deals with grief in their own way and for some people, feelings of grief will never completely go away.”
Andrew can also be found illustrating her forays into the dating world, with brilliantly relatable results. Check out her artwork here: @bymariandrew.