Erika

Erika died in the early hours of yesterday, just weeks after a cancer diagnosis. The timeline barely credits the use of the plural. Many of you will know her as a pop-in-and-out WOYWW Desker, she shared her craft passions on her blog, sumbunnehcrafts. You might have connected with her through the Visible Image community, she surely was their number one fan and cheerleader. For no gain, she just fell for the marque and got to know Mark and Helen really well. 

I knew Erika a little. She was much younger than me, I remember her 40th birthday, so it can’t have been that long ago. We were near neighbours for some years and she was a customer in my shop way back then, and when she and her husband Ian moved away into their lovely new home, they commissioned Mr Dunnit to manufacture fitted cabinets for her new craft room. I can still see her smile as she showed me round the finished room and we chatted and giggled over the capacity of stash it would hold. If you met her, you’d never forget her. She was fabulously friendly and very quick to giggle. 

Erika liked to share her experiences and passions; her blog wasn’t her favourite way to communicate - I wonder if it wasn’t responsive enough. Her Facebook presence was marvellous. I learned about Visible Image from her. She helped to establish Chatty Crafters in her new neighbourhood so that she could meet and encourage others to do things that she loved. She loved being part of a twice weekly Zumba class and she adored music. For this gentle human being who I don’t believe was capable of of any sort of unkindness, the best music was heavy metal. I love that about her, such a dichotomy! 

Erika was not vain in any way, and happily posted selfies and pictures so that we could all share her fun. I remember a discussion on Facebook following some unkind comment regarding body shape. She believed, really believed, that who she was and how she conducted her life was more important than how she looked. And that belief shone from her and made her a great role model for women struggling with body image. I really hope she knew that. As with all these things, I really wish I had told her of my opinion.

Because we lived near each other, over the years I have bumped into quite a few people who know Erika. I can honestly say that it’s  a humbling experience to listen to how well liked, how kind, how thoughtful and how sweet Erika is. 

One of Erika’s mixed media pieces. She did love some splat and splash.

 I think that of all the people I’ve ever met, Erika lived up to the sentiment on this piece. I offer huge condolences to Ian and to her family. And to everyone that knew Erika - weren’t we lucky.