Zara
Zara is losing sleep with excitement about becoming 10 in just 2 months. It’s been a big year all round: with a new little sister, Isobel, to get used to; a school move to contend with and her cousins Jack and Ella Grace emigrating to New Zealand.
Her parents, Sarah and Alex, decide a birthday Portrait in Prose is an ideal way to celebrate all Zara loves and involve everyone who loves her most too.
The final version is a combination of theme and narrative so the contributions create one entertaining whole. Sarah and Alex then ask for photos too, so they can illustrate the final version with so many memories from the last 10 years.
Zara is uncharacteristically speechless when she sees her framed text for the first time on her birthday. She can’t know this then, but she will never grow out of enjoying it.
Vi and Albert
Vi and Albert will be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary next year and their family couldn’t be more proud. They decide to mark the occasion with an anniversary Portrait in Prose commission as a very special and top secret present.
Albert and Vi’s children begin to collect the photos; they ask me to help create the text.
It’s a really valuable chance for rare family time: teenagers, twentysomethings and parents alike find themselves reminiscing together, putting into words an inheritance of love all too often taken for granted. There are funny stories to be told, but also wells of emotion that need a right way of expressing too. It’s a truly life enhancing experience for all concerned.
Albert and Vi are given their beautiful album on the anniversary of their wedding, 60 years before. They both cherish the great care that’s been taken with such an irreplaceable gift.
Will
Will is about to turn 21 and go travelling. Mum Heidi and dad Michael can’t believe it. It seems only moments ago he was coming home from school with muddy knees from football or throwing endless frisbees for the family dog with older brother Gareth. Now, he’s all grown up.
They want to give him something meaningful rather than just buy more ‘stuff’, since he seems to have enough already, so as well as a Silverstone experience day they plan a special birthday Portrait in Prose.
As well as family, Gareth suggests they involve Will’s girlfriend Isobel, as well as a couple of his mates from home, since the family moved during Will’s A Levels and he doesn’t get to see them. As a result, our text and photos will track Will’s story from toddler antics…through his sports mad teenage years…to the cusp of a whole new world.
Hannah Wroe Gill | Portraits in Prose
