Edna journeyed to Britain in 1961, to be reunited with her brother who had settled in Wales after joining the RAF. Edna first worked for St David’s Hospital near Cardiff, and then became a Nursing Assistant at Ely Hospital in 1973. Alongside raising her four children, Edna worked lovingly and with dedication until her retirement in 1996. The Pentecostal Church has been a constant in Edna’s life from which she has ‘gained strength and friendship at the weekly gatherings’.

Artist Amy Sherald’s reflection

Creating this portrait of Edna was an honour for me … I wanted to depict Edna with dignity and power, as a full participant in British society: a churchgoer, a mother, a community elder, a woman wearing pearls. I wanted to create an image of Edna that would be equal to the tender force of her being, foregrounding her subjectivity amidst, and despite a position within an historical legacy of reckoning with injustice.