Roses & Jazz - A Grief Tale by Helpline Volunteer Zosia

After losing her mother, Helpline Volunteer Zosia found solace in the medium of analogue photography and poetry. This project 'Roses & Jazz - A Grief Tale' charts a personal journey through grief and memory. As Zosia began to take photos of her surroundings and write accompanying poems, the camera became a navigation tool that helped her find a way through the first two years of loss.

January 31, 2025

 “Roses & Jazz – A Love Tale of Grief” is dedicated to my beautiful mother whom my family lost in March 2022. The photographs and accompanying poems document a breadth of emotions, thoughts, impressions, memories, and experiences that I lived through in the first two years following her death. There came a day, as unexpected as hard won, when the words expressing my inner landscape started to flow and matched the details of the landscape around me, either by contrast or harmony.

 

My analogue camera, a tiny device, quickly became a faithful companion floating through space by my side, in my bag, always at hand. The language I chose to express myself is the one that my mother taught me – communicating via images as much as words. She had a keen eye for the tiniest and loveliest details of everyday life from colours and shapes to spring flowers, odd and funny looking trees, and the most peculiar insects that surely must still be unknown to science. In our time together we exchanged an unimaginable number of pictures of anything and everything that each of us knew the other one would enjoy.

 

My mother was an incurably curious soul who saw and felt more than most. She loved roses and singing jazz… She was the warm and bright sun that shone at the centre of our universe, a super star. When her time came, this star went out in an explosion of a supernova of legendary proportions. And just like a supernova, she released energy into the universe: warmth and kindness that she had for everyone who had ever crossed paths with her. On my path, she was my soul mate and my best friend. She loved our family fiercely, held our hearts safe, filled our life with laughter and joy, music, kindness, and appreciation for the wanders of life, big and small.

 

Creating this collection was a navigation tool for me to find my way to the land of the living again. The journey that started with a descent into hell, took me through the Land of the Dead on to the World In Between, suspended in no-time and no-place, to finally bring me where I am today.

 

Zosia, 2025

 

Zosia joined the Cruse Scotland team in 2024 as a Helpline Listener. In her free time, Zosia can be found taking photographs with a range of 35mm cameras. You can see more of her work here.

 

Feeling inspired to join our team of volunteers? There are a number of roles available or soon to be available. You can apply now or register your interest with us, and be notified when applications reopen for your desired role. Find out more here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roses & Jazz - A Grief Tale by Helpline Volunteer Zosia