AustLit

'This creative piece, Ticking the Box, is a short memoir depicting my grief as a young widow and portraying aspects of the journey of recovery from that loss. The opening scene shows having to tick the box ‘widowed’ for the first time on an official form shortly after my husband’s death and then explores my response to the unwanted identity of ‘young widow’. This includes the first solo visit for dinner at the home of a befriended couple, conveying the awkwardness felt by all. A flashback takes the reader back to when my husband and I first met each other in Egypt, where we were both traveling as young backpackers. It depicts the first days spent together against the stunning backdrop of the temples in Luxor and concludes with the buying of an artefact, which now sits on my bedside table, a tangible connection to the past. The text explores how to integrate the memories of the past, of twenty years spent together, into the future in a way that offers the past as well as the future its own space. This work explores issues of identity, grief and premature loss. It recognises the dead as vulnerable subjects and strives for an ethical representation of the deceased.'

Source: Abstract.