Beaded wings of solace

A group of residents at Parkside Village in Auckland are getting crafty, all in the name of giving back.

Over the past year, Ellen Carlin and her friend Barbara Parks have led craft sessions with a bit of twist.

These sessions teach residents how to create intricately beaded dragonfly designs, which are then donated to Hospice West Auckland, and gifted as a memento to every family whose loved one passes away in their care home.

The initiative started when Hospice held a dragonfly workshop for a group of Metlifecare Social Coordinators last year. Judy Christie, Parkside Village Social Coordinator, invited a few residents to join her and the rest is history.

Ellen and Barbara now have up to 16 residents attend each session. Ellen says it’s not just a group crafting activity, as even the Parkside Independent Resident Association (PIRA) got involved.

“They have been generously donating funds to purchase beads and wire. Initially they gave us $100, then an additional $200 when I asked them again. We have already repurposed beads from old jewellery, turning something old into something new. So, it’s a win-win scenario.”

For a veteran crafter, each dragonfly takes around 30 minutes to make. Ellen notes, “The beads are teeny, and it’s a very fiddly task, but we love it!”

After holding four resident sessions and donating over 47 beautiful dragonflies, Ellen says it is not just about the love of craft.

“It's a real friendship thing. New residents to the village attend, so we create new friendships and build on existing ones. It’s centred around doing something special for someone else.”

The hidden poem behind the dragonfly

You might be wondering why a dragonfly? Well, there is a lovely sentiment behind it, and it’s all about the ‘cycle of life.’ Here’s the story told in the form of a poem.

The Dragonfly – Te Kapowai

Once, in a little pond, in the muddy water under the lily pads, there lived a little water beetle in a community of water beetles. They lived a simple and comfortable life in the pond with few disturbances and interruptions.

Once in a while, sadness would come to the community when one of their fellow beetles would climb the stem of a lily pad and would never be seen again. They knew when this happened, their friend was dead, gone forever.

Then, one day, one little water beetle felt an irresistible urge to climb up that stem. However, he was determined that he would not leave forever. He would come back and tell his friends what he had found at the top.

When he reached the top and climbed out of the water onto the surface of the lily pad, he was so tired, and the sun felt so warm, that he decided he must take a nap. As he slept, his body changed and when he woke up, he had turned into a beautiful blue-tailed dragonfly with broad wings and a slender body designed for flying.

So, fly he did! And, as he soared, he saw the beauty of a whole new world and a far superior way of life to what he had never known existed.

Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they were thinking by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them, and explain to them that he was now more alive than he had ever been before. His life had been fulfilled rather than ended.

But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could not get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he understood that their time would come, when they, too, would know what he now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew off into his joyous new life!

• Author Unknown