Ensuring a legacy lives on….
Below is Arthur Harkness’s account of how he turned his wife Marian’s hobbies into a fantastic way to raise vital funds for the Trust.
My wife, Marian Harkness, died on the 19th of July 2018, just 9 days short of 56 years of marriage. She died of Multiple System Atrophy, a cruel disease where muscular activity (voluntary and involuntary) slowly ceases because of brain cell damage. As the disease progressed Marian lost her fine finger activity, which she found incredibly hard as most of her interests and creative talents involved using her hands. Marian attended an art group twice a week and worked in watercolours, oils and crayons. She also went to a Bobbin Lace group twice a week and produced beautiful lace work as well as doing a lot of embroidery, knitting and crochet work. On top of this Marian was a very good cook and baker who excelled at cake decorating.
After her death I was sorting through her effects and realised just what a large quantity of art and other equipment/books there was and I decided to offer them to the local groups she attended, not with values apportioned but just a request for donations that I could then send to the MSA Trust.
One of her friends from the art class took paints, brushes, books and other art equipment to the group and brought the proffered donations back to me. The Bobbin Lace group is part of Northumbria Lacemakers who, as well as running the local group, have a larger meeting once a month at different venues over the counties. The local group tutor took all of the lace making items to the group, again just asking for donations. The same thing happened with her embroidery. Her friends from the groups were incredibly generous in their donations and when added to the donations at her funeral in total we raised over £1750, which my family made up to £2000.
As said previously multiple system atrophy is a cruel disease and any monies raised for the Trust can only be beneficial as it helps towards finding a cure. It gives us some consolation to know that Marian’s hobbies, from which she took so much pleasure, will in some way help towards finding this cure.
Pictures : Below – Bride embroidery work by Marian, Right – Wren painting
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