Nuneaton Escape Bookshelf: Ella's Shelf
Participants attending Escape Arts Nuneaton Escape community group worked with Artist Jonny Nicholds on the Double Negative project. The group decided that they would want to use this theme to show their real selves and speak their hidden truths. In discussions, we decided that a library was the ideal setting for showcasing their stories and memories. Each member created a shelf housing book spines which are personal to them. This is Ella's shelf.
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My wonderful sister
My little sister is wonderful. She has faced many trials in her life starting at the age of 3 when she developed Leukaemia, it was 1986 and the treatment was still very longwinded and harsh. She was the only one to survive out of a group of ten children in treatment at the same time as her.
The levels of radiation given to beat the cancer damaged her brain, the lack of schooling, dyslexia and being isolated for so long only made it worse for her, she went to a special needs school. She was bullied for this by other kids and for a long time was very timid and socially awkward.
At 18 she trained to be a nursery nurse people again bullied her there for the way she was, none of which was her fault, she is a kind and caring person with no malice in her.
She had her first son around 20, he was born with severe Autism, ADHD and gigantism. It would turn out this was likely caused by the high levels of radiation still in her body being passed to the first child. People would stare at them all the time, neighbours complained and the school sent him home saying they couldn’t cope with him. Her life was very hard already and she then developed cancer of the thyroid after having her second child, she fought this off and won the battle again.
She has lived from one crisis to another dealing with things that could take a person down to the depths of despair facing peoples prejudices and trying to survive, being judged for not working amongst other things.
Still through all of this she is an amazing person whom rarely complains, she is funny and we laugh all the time, she is kind and caring, a fighter and a survivor stronger than most and an example of the best we can be. So never judge a book by its cover always read the pages as you might find its a brilliant tale.