Thursday 1 April 2010

Dream




On a sleety,windswept day
we drove for many hours to the North
for a funeral.
The death brought
a mixture of relief and sadness for her family.
She was very old and had been very ill.


My son dreamed of her shortly after her death
on March 25th.
She was young and full of life.
This statue, Dream overlooks a busy motorway
 not far from the colliery
where her husband spent most of his working life.
It is 20 metres high and depicts a girl's head with her eyes closed.

The sculptor Jaume Piensa said,

'I learnt a lot through talking with the miners. 
All they spoke about was darkness 
and I wanted something to reflect the light. 
Light becomes a dream when you are working in darkness.'

Gary Conley, a former Sutton Manor miner, said,
'I never envisaged that on top of this former 
colliery spoil heap we would have
 something of such beauty. 
In the years I worked at Sutton Manor Colliery
 seeing the hustle and bustle, 
along with the dirt, smoke, steam and coal 
produced on that very spot, 
I would never have guessed that years later 
it would become 
somewhere peaceful and serene, 
where families would want to visit to admire Dream 
and its panoramic surroundings.
I often have to pinch myself to realise I'm not in a dream! 
I feel proud and honoured to have been part of this project.'

And after the funeral we visited her
youngest great grand-daughter


who dreams of ponies,


to give her a present -


a stable made by my grandfather



for a little girl who no longer needs it.



4 comments:

  1. Oh. Lucky girl.

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  2. Very touching ... and what a gift to share with the little child.

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  3. How lovely. We have our own very similar ponies, but they are piled in a purple plastic Hannah Montana box.

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