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16 Aug, 2019 15:45

Eccentric embroidery propels 81yo dementia sufferer to Instagram stardom (PHOTOS)

Eccentric embroidery propels 81yo dementia sufferer to Instagram stardom (PHOTOS)

A Russian granny’s embroidery helps ease her dementia and has amazed social media users for its unique style. She creates lots of cats and nudes, and has refused numerous calls to sell her work, dreaming instead of an exhibition.

Julia Aleshicheva was born in 1938 in the Tver Region of central Russia and had a difficult life. During World War II her family was declared “enemies of the state” and were deprived of benefits, after her father was falsely accused of deserting and joining the Nazis. A young Julia found herself begging for food in the streets just to survive.

Despite this, she still became a devoted Communist, working for the Komsomol youth organization but, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, she was left with almost nothing.

She suffered another blow when her country house in Karelia on the border with Finland was set on fire by unknown arsonists.

The woman barely survived the blaze, but her cat and dog were killed in it and the property was damaged beyond repair.

“It was a terrible stress for the grandma and the reason why her dementia began progressing,” her grandson Jan Gorkunov recalled. The children took Julia to live with them in St Petersburg, but being under the same roof with a sick person isn’t easy.

The woman suffers from short-term memory loss. She remembers events from decades ago clearly, but forgets the names of her relatives or what she had for breakfast. Mood swings are also a problem.

But sometimes, when it seems that things couldn’t be worse, a new opportunity suddenly presents itself. Julia was doing embroidery since she’d been five, but now – at 81 – she could fully devote herself to her hobby.

The creative process also became a medicine for her condition. “When grandma takes the needle and yarn in her hands, she feels focused, inspired and really happy,” Jan said.

“She chooses all the themes herself. Stitches only what she likes. She saw the image of [actress] Pola Negri on a box of chocolates. I bring her a lot of art books and albums. She takes a lot from them too. Grandma also loves kitties and we search for them on the internet.”

One of her most prominent works was the portrait of Spice Girls. Julia found the photo of the 90s girl band in a magazine and thought that they were her friends from university years. Because of this she put extra effort in to the embroidery, which required two-and-a-half months’ work.

At first, Julia’s creations and her unique vision were only enjoyed by her family, but her grandson deemed that they were good enough to be shared with the world and created an Instagram account for his grandma.

And the users were blown away by her talent, comparing the woman’s style to that of Frida Kahlo and calling her woks “great,”“cool” and “amazing.”

There were also many who asked if they could buy the grandmother’s embroidery for themselves. But Julia and her grandson aren’t selling a piece as they are collecting the works to someday mount a major exhibition at a gallery.

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