by SALLY HEPPLESTON
When I posted on Facebook on August 1 this year that I was going to take part in the Instagram photo a day challenge to help me get through what is always the most difficult month of the year, my friend and talented artist Tonia Composto said she could go one better.
For the past four years, August hasn’t been kind to me. And not just because I live in Melbourne where the winters are long, dreary and cold. On August 19 2008, my first child Hope was stillborn at 40 weeks and 5 days after a robustly healthy and incredibly normal pregnancy. Our world shattered. She was eight pounds and perfect in every way, just not breathing. We spent the night with her in hospital before coming home without her the next day, with empty arms and broken hearts, where we tried to make sense of living in the world without her. We didn’t just lose our baby, we lost all the dreams we had for her future. One of those dreams was reading her fairy tales.
To mark the month in which Hope would have turned four, Tonia, who has offered me rock solid support and friendship since the day Hope died, came up with an idea.
It was already about 10pm on the first day of the month when her email came through. She offered to do an illustration based on a popular fairy tale every day for the month. We would then share them among our Facebook networks and sell prints at the end of the month to raise funds for the Stillbirth Foundation. She was seeking my fast approval so she could make a start on illustration number one, which was Snow White. I read her email out loud to my husband Simon and we were both completely blown away. Her first illustration was posted before midnight, and Fairy Tales for Hope was born.
Each day in Tonia’s spare time (which she doesn’t have much of, chasing her two year old Nina around as well as working and teaching graphic design part time) Tonia set to work on a new illustration, with each one taking her up to four hours to complete, a little more than the happy snap I was taking on my phone! She featured some of the more popular fairy tales, including Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, and some lesser known ones like The Red Shoes and The Golden Headed Fish. I started a blog and a Facebook page and we got busy seeking a paper supply company and printer so we could bring the project to life.
Paper was donated by Spicers and printing services were offered by Ellikon and everything started falling in to place. The Stillbirth Foundation was thrilled with the concept and Facebook “likes” just keep rolling in. On Hope’s birthday, the daily illustration was Sleeping Beauty, which couldn’t have been more fitting.
Top Comments
Beautiful pictures - came here via BabyMac and now to share properly on FB. I hope you sell each and every one of those gorgeous prints - and I have to decide which ones I should purchase for my little ones.
I have just had a look at all the prints and they are just beautiful. Now Hope will live on in the hearts of everyone. I know I will think of her every time I look at my Three Bears print.
Your family must be very proud of you in all the hard you have done.
Best of luck. xxxx