A sheep farmer in New South Wales, Australia found a heartfelt way to honor his late aunt when pandemic restrictions kept him from her funeral in Brisbane.
Ben Jackson from Guyra couldn’t make it to Brisbane when his aunt was in her final moments and after a two-year battle with cancer. “Unfortunately, she didn’t make it,” Jackson said. “At those times of grief, you feel really helpless, you don’t know what to do, what to say.
“Especially in these Covid times, no one can prepare for that border closure grief, not being able to say cheerio or be there when she passes. It’s pretty difficult.”
Jackson honored her by making an incredible heart-shaped formation using sheep! He got the idea while he was out feeding his sheep.
It took ‘three or four’ attempts to make the heart, as the initial efforts were less than desirable. After he created the heart, he filmed the video by drone and sent to his family in Brisbane so it could be overlaid to Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water and played at his aunt’s funeral.
“When I saw [the final product] I would be the first to admit that there was plenty of waterworks,” Jackson said. “It was very lovely to have it as part of a sendoff. It was certainly something that she would have loved and absolutely cherished.”
Jackson first started making his sheep art during a previous drought when he fed his sheep from the back of his flatbed truck every single day. He got the idea that he could draw shapes in the landscape and that the sheep would gather. “And they haven’t forgotten yet,” he said.
In the past, Jackson has created other shapes like a giant ABC logo but stressed that the tribute was solely for Aunty Deb. “I completely get I’m not Robinson Crusoe, I’m not the only person who’s doing it tough with lockdown and borders and Covid,” he said.
“It’s a very, very challenging time. And knowing my Aunty Deb, if this sheep art – if it brought a smile to even one person’s face, she would be a very proud aunty.” He added, “Certainly the reaction online has been such that, yeah, hey there’s a lot of people doing it tough and need a smile on their dial.”
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