My Mother's Point of View

My sister and I went to upstate NY to check on my mother and aunt last week.  They are 80 and 88.

Aunt Aileen and  Mom, May 2009

Vascular dementia has its grip on my mother, and my aunt's heart is getting a little tired.  For now, they still live together, but those days are numbered. 

When I was last there in May for my mother's 80th birthday, I was able to take some sweet portraits of her.  This trip I decided to concentrate on "a day in the life" set, which I'll be processing soon.

One of my favorite images is of the view out Mom's bedroom window.  Every night, when she goes to bed, she opens the blinds in her room.   In the morning, the neighboring building and trees are the first things she sees.  In the summer, the trees are leafy green, blazing orange and yellow in fall, and majestically bare in the winter.  Mom loves that view.  She lies in bed, taking it all in before getting up to start her day. 

This image was taken from her bedroom window the morning of the day I returned home.  On this day at least, Mom and I were seeing eye to eye.