The beauty of the east coast’s rising sun has inspired hospital manager Vandana Khurana to create a book of uplifting photographs after the pandemic prevented her from travelling to be with her mother during her final hours.
Vandana Khurana, who works at the James Paget University Hospital, started taking photographs of the sun rising as a way of coping with the grief of losing her mother, who died in August last year. Covid restrictions meant that Vandana could not travel to India to be with her, leaving her distraught.
But she found comfort in taking the short walk to the beach from her home in Hopton-on-Sea to watch the sun rise, which she describes as both calming and uplifting.
She says: ‘COVID-19 has affected us all in many ways and it has connected us all globally through threads of communal grief.
‘I had my personal experience during this period and was unable to go and see my mum in her last moments of life. How I survived and came out through the other side was with the help of early morning walks to see the sun rising from the horizon, filling the sky with its abundance of colourful energy, reflecting on the sea and sand.’
The beauty of the sunrise prompted Vandana to start taking photographs, which she initially shared with friends and family before deciding to publish them in a book.
The book – entitled Awakening with Sunrise – has received positive feedback from those who have bought it, with one reader saying: ‘Nature is a miracle. Vandana Khurana has captured those magical moments of sunrise in her evocative photographs. Her mother’s death is like the sunset but sunset leads to sunrise thus death leads to birth. When we experience sunset, we also experience sunrise this is the duty of our existence. May the readers be inspired by these photographs.’
Proceeds from sales of the book are going to four charities, including the James Paget Hospital Charity and Macmillan.
For more information about the book and to place an order, visit: https://www.awakeningwithsunrise.co.uk/
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