Anna Williamson 'papped' her grandmother after she died
Anna Williamson has revealed that her family were horrified after she panic-took photos of her grandmother moments after her death at hospital, insisting she meant it as a way for relatives to say goodbye, not to offend.
Anna Williamson "papped [her] Nana when she died".
The 44-year-old TV presenter arrived at the hospital "10 or 15 minutes" after being notified that her loved one had died, and after crying "a little bit" in a cubicle, doctors informed Anna that they had to move her grandmother to the morgue.
With Anna's family not being present, she panicked and decided to do "a little photoshoot of different angles of Nana" and then shared the pictures in her brothers and cousins' group chat so they could say goodbye to their grandmother that way.
Appearing on the latest episode of internet personality Luke Hamnett's Live, Laugh, Luke podcast, Anna said: "I'm a bit embarrassed to say it, I papped my Nana when she died ...
"I was on my way to go and see my nan when she was still alive, thinking she was alive. It was like visiting time to see my nan.
"I get a phone call from the hospital saying, 'I'm ever so sorry, but your grandmother's passed away.' So, obviously, I'm like, 'Oh!' So like just weird, like spontaneity.
"I was like, 'Well, I'm on my way to the hospital. I'm going to still go.' In my head, I'm like, 'I don't want her to be on her own.'
"But I went in, and I just remember feeling a bit ... grief in those situations, you don't know what to do in those moments.
"It is shock. It is weirdness. And I remember I got to the hospital, and so she'd been past maybe 10, 15 minutes. My mum hadn't arrived yet, or my aunt, like her. So I was like..."
Luke jumped in: "Group chat, she's dead."
Anna continued: "Well, yeah! So I was like, 'I don't know what to do.' So I went in the cubicle, and I started crying a little bit because, obviously, that was awful, and I'm like, 'Oh, it's my nan,' and I loved her very much ...
"The doctors are like, 'Well, we're going to take your grandmother,' down to wherever they take them.
"So in that moment, I'm thinking, 'Oh God,' I was a bit panicky. It's a bit like, 'Well, I'm the last person to see her. No one else is coming along.'
"So in my panic - it's weird to say - I thought, 'Maybe, they'd like to see Nana for the last time.' So then I get my phone out, and I'm doing a little photoshoot of different angles of Nana.
"So then I'm on a group chat with my brothers and my cousins. And then I was like, 'Sounds a bit weird, but I've just taken a photo of Nana if anyone wants to see it.'"
The Celebs Go Dating star meant the photos as a way for relatives to say goodbye, not to offend.
But Anna's brothers and cousins blasted her for taking photos of their dead grandmother.
She said: "And this is why I love all of my brothers, obviously, because they're boys, and my cousins are male as well.
"They were like, 'No, we don't. Why did you do that? You absolute freak! I can't believe you've taken a photo of Nana dead, you absolute lunatic!' I was like, 'So no one then?'"
The former children's TV presenter - who still has the pictures of her deceased grandmother on her phone - told her mum, who branded Anna's actions "very disrespectful".
Anna said: "I remember I told my mum about the dead Nana photo thing because my mum did get a whiff of it. And she's like, 'What is this? I think that's very disrespectful, Anna, talking about your grandmother.'"
