The Art of Palliative Medicine - 2018 Semester 1
I choose to do a painting on wood because I felt an image would capture best how I felt after my encounter with a palliative care patient and her family. The image is of a young girl on a swing hanging from storm clouds. It is meant to portray an innocence and naivety overshadowed by a foreboding darkness. It reflects what I felt I learnt from my patient. Whilst the vast majority of people will move through life ignorant of death, the palliative patient will ponder what the next few weeks/months/years will involve and will always have the clouds of their passing hanging over them. I feel that they thus still remain innocent to what death will involve, but they are in the unique and terrifying position of seeing their death on the horizon, much like storm clouds coming in.