“This man’s photo gives me so much comfort and that’s how I get by…”
Once I was collecting in a very small sheep farming town Western Australia. I knocked on the door of a run-down small country style house and a very fragile bodied old lady answered the door. It was quite clear that she was living on her own and looking after herself in the last years of her life. Normally, in that situation, people aren’t used to strangers coming to the door in a small town so it struck me that she immediately looked at what I had in my hand, which was a roll of paintings, and said “Oh! Come in.” She opened the door wide and took me into her living room and before I could say anything she said “I have to talk to you. It’s about the book. Now, if you’ve come to get the book then I have to talk to you.” I told her that I wasn’t sure what she was talking about; I was there to sell paintings.