Jen will appear throughout the collection more than once. Each with a piece of her story which is long & inspiring.
As a child, Jen was raised in a home with two parents & a younger sibling with a disability. At a young age she became a carer to her sister who couldn’t speak; learning sign language to become her translator.
She learned in her infant years that her value to others centred around the ability to serve others & to subjugate her own needs to do this role well.
Her ability to volatilise her own needs meant that they were often invisible, making her both vulnerable & lonely & open to exploitation.
At 11 an incident caused her lungs to collapse; to a near-death hospital admission & a further deterioration of her sense of value & self-esteem. The illness led to weight loss & disconnect with her peers which was the beginning of the deterioration of her mental health. With little memory of who she was prior to the trauma she felt lost & this was just the start.