I bought this teacup when I got out of the hospital.
After several months of fevers and severe fatigue an infectious disease specialist finally diagnosed what was wrong with me: an advanced case of endocarditis. At home I am connected day and night to a home IV kit that pumps a steady stream of antibiotics into my blood. Presently I will require surgery.
The teacup I had my eye on for some time. It was made by a Londoner named Ali Miller. She created this design within weeks of her partner's father passing away. She calls it "By Your Side." The assemblage combines personal imagery with iconography referencing life and death.
I bought it because I was appropriately shaken up by my recent (and ongoing) experience. How cavalier I had previously been about my own mortality.
This teacup reminds me, every day as I take my morning tea, that death recently tapped me on the shoulder and said "hey! I am not a distant, amorphous abstract; I am right here, by your side."
So get a move on.
