Invitation (011)

I saw Grannie today. She is declining quickly. This past year hasn't killed her body, but the isolation is killing her mind. It's hard to believe she is nearly nine decades old. Sissy brought up photo books from storage for Grannie to look through and remember her family. She is the last living of twelve kids. Her brother died on New Years Day 2021, one of the 500,000 in America. The president he voted for failed him. 

If she had known, she wouldn't have liked it, but I recorded her talking about her siblings, cousins, high school classmates as we went through two of the photo books. Black and white pictures barely hanging onto their pages, taken from 1952 through 57. One day, it will be our only source of her voice and it must be protected. But for now, we are all getting vaccinated and staying away from people as much as possible so that my small family of eight can all be together for her birthday. 

The apartment we live in was chosen with her in mind. Hard floors and a half bath downstairs make it easy for her to be in our space. We moved exactly a year ago, and she was able to visit for the first time last month. I’m excited to finally have a date chosen to have everyone over.