My father died of pneumonia in November of 2002 after a long physical decline triggered by a stroke in June, 2000. In the last weeks of his decline my mother was succumbing to dementia. Even as she began fading away, she still had a connection with my father.

These photographs were taken two weeks before my father’s death. At that time he was nearly blind from cataracts, and his body had become a prison of immobility which he longed to leave. But even at the end he could experience great pleasure by replaying in his mind his favorite music from eighty-eight years of listening.

My mother journeyed on towards the darkness of mental oblivion. She still sometimes comes back enough to recognize me.