Happiness Was Time With You

When I took this photo of Oliver on Oct. 27th of last year,  I had no idea that in ten days he'd be gone.  For more than 2 1/2 years I'd treated him aggressively for chronic kidney disease, chronic pancreatitis, and in his last 6 months he was on chemotherapy for small cell lymphoma.  Unbeknownst to me and his internist, a more sinister cancer lurked in his right kidney.   Somehow, when the radiologist and oncologist saw something suspicious in his last ultrasound, that info never got to me.  Finally, following several days of hospitalization, I learned of it, and a more aggressive chemo was attempted on his last day in the hospital.  It was too late, and on November 6th of 2015, I had to let him go.

I wanted to scrap this silly picture, but I had hard time with the colors in the blanket.  I decided that a colorful collage would be the best way to scrap it.  Although I love to collage, it's not my usual style in a layout.  It was also the first time I'd been able to look at his photo without having a total breakdown.  His death was the most gut wrenching loss I've ever experienced.

Anyway, I found this fun sketch on My Creative Sketches, so I thought I'd enter it.  I used paper from the DCWV Collage Art Stack.  The dictionary sentiments and some of the papers tucked here and there are from Ephemera's Vintage Garden, A Happy Place collection.  It's one of my favorite collections and I've used bits of it on several projects.  Thanks for looking!