5 year reflection

It’s five years since my Father passed on, leaving my Mother, now 91, to live alone in the North West of England with the help of people who are both paid and dear friends to look after her. For the past five years I have spent 6-weeks in the summer and 6-weeks in the winter (Christmas) roughly 8-months out of the five years, to comfort her and provide release from the tedium of being alone. Macular degeneration has added to her sense of isolation, unable to read, watch TV or safely venture out unescorted, my visits remind me of how dependent she was on my Father.

When he was alive and I spent time with both of them, Dad would love a coffee in the village where we would walk through a wiend and pass historic buildings dating back 300+years. On my last visit, Christmas 2016, I paid more attention to the details of this passage way and photographed this wonderful door lead window. It seemed a fitting way to reflect a self portraite on five years since my Father died and the time I have spent with my Mother.