Seven Weeks in a Life and a Death

It took my father seven weeks to die once he was diagnosed with lung cancer which had spread to his brain. Saul was a Holocaust survivor, who lived in the forests and fought to stay alive. He came this country and created a family with my mother, Irma. Their relationship, long and stormy but with love, came to an end following his sudden descent into a sleep that he could not rouse himself from in August of 2014. Irma, confronted with the prospect that she would be alone for the first time in her life, accompanied Saul through his last weeks with grace. She showed strength and great character and even a sense of humor during this time. My brothers and I knew that my father was at the end of his life. He was the center of a our family; the glue that held us all together. I took photographs as a way to remember my father in his last days. I did not plan to create this photo study. As I went through these photos, I not only saw my father's sudden and precipitous descent, but also saw the beginnings of my mother's transition to being alone, a survivor in her own right. This study shows seven weeks of life transitions. I hope that the viewer will recognize the strength of the dying and the strength of the surviving partner through these photos.