Text and artwork by Kate Pritchard
Over the past three or four years, balancing work, health, caring, and life has often felt impossible. Most of the time, I’ve felt like a failure, not fully present, waving from behind a steamed-up window.
But I have learnt. A lot. About dementia, about care, about compassion. Support from the Alzheimer’s Society made a difference, especially a 121 session in a small community centre in Kingswinford. Some days you need a village, and that day it was Kford.
In the margins, I held onto something for myself. Photography. Writing. Small acts of creativity rooted in the Black Country I love. Some pieces are true, or close to it. Others are imagined from what I see – moments, fragments, people passing through.
There’s more creativity I want to share. Some of the most heartfelt pieces are parked, waiting for the right time. I started a psychogeograph exploration of Brierley Hill which I can’t wait to continue and share.
I was genuinely grateful when Creative Black Country included one of my lighter stories in their Bostin News Zine 3. On writing day, I watched three men sitting on a bench at Wolverhampton market and wondered what they might be saying.
And somewhere in that moment, between truth and imagination, appeared the looming threat of a tiny Wolverhampton woman with a whisk. Enjoy.
- Kate is a communications professional and aspiring writer, poet and photographer. Proud Black Country with half my heart in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
