Isobella Antelis’ mother died after a battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer, when Isobella was just 8-years-old.

Nearly 10 years later, the two are reunited in the form of a tattoo on the back of Antelis’ right shoulder. Last summer, Antelis had the black tattoo inked in a parlor in Seattle.

Designed largely by her older step-sister, the tattoo depicts the sisters as two birds inside of a hamsa hand, and a third bird, representing their mother, guiding them from the outside.

The hamsa hand is a popular symbol of protection. Antelis, a sophomore film major, said she always felt a strong connection to the symbol.

“It’s all in honor of her. It’s a symbol of her watching over me,” Antelis said. “Her hand’s on my back, guiding me through life. I feel whole with it.”

Antelis said her mother had a profound effect on what she now describes as her “hippie” lifestyle.

“She was always very loving, she was always very caring. With her passing, I’ve realized that I don’t want to take time getting upset about materialistic things,” Antelis said. “It’s important to always try to find something happy every day, because no one knows how much time they have left.”

A self-described spiritual person, Antelis said she knows that her mother is always with her. She practices meditation and said she is “open to the universe.” She even sought the guidance of a medium with her two aunts to communicate with her mother in the afterlife. This experience was an introduction to the spiritual life she now lives, Antelis said.

As she gazed out a window in Bird Library, she talked about all of the happy mornings she’d spend eating breakfast with her mother in her childhood home in Chicago.

“She would always make me breakfast every morning,” Antelis said. “We had this bird feeder outside, and we had this beautiful backyard and a porch, and we’d always watch the birds.”

Even after death, Antelis said her relationship with her mother is strong.

“She loved her daughters,” Antelis said. “She loved me and my sister more than anyone in the world.”

Published on September 15, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact: emmichae@syr.edu