“I tried to focus on my mother’s face, but my hands kept shaking, even after I pressed the shutter. Through my lens I saw my mother burst into tears, holding my father’s pillow, trying to steal his essence from the last object that held him to this world. I can’t understand how I was able to do it, to capture the devastating image of my mother without falling apart. The only thing I know is that I framed the moment when sadness and loneliness took over our lives. I captured and froze in time my mother’s plea to have her husband. She just wanted him to come back and take her with him too.”
The previous fiction is inspired by the brave and talented work from the artist who photographed her parents during their battle with cancer.
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We often forget to be thankful for the gift of life, for the privilege of waking up every morning with good health. Only a few give thanks for the opportunity to spend time on this Earth, surrounded by family and loved ones.
Every day is an opportunity to honor the people who help us keep going, the ones who created memories and smiles. It’s our chance to be thankful for our heart’s ability to be filled to the brim with love and other surprises life has in store for us.
For Nancy Borowick, the best form to honor her parents was by a series of photographs. She shared the history of her family, the marriage and love of two cancer victims who relentlessly fought to live, a couple who was thankful for the opportunity to be with their daughter one more day.
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Part I: Together
According to Nancy: “It honors my parents’ memory by focusing on their strength and love, both individually and together, and shares the story of their final chapters, which came to a close just 364 days apart from one another.”
The couple was always supportive of each other, and they tried to be positive while the doctors and their daughter fought to improve their life’s quality. To them every second was precious, because they were aware of the fact that their story eventually had to end.
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Part II: Without Him
On September 7, 2013, a year after his diagnosis, Nancy’s father, Howie, died. For her mother, Lauren, the death of her husband not only spelled the end of his fight, but the deterioration of her own health. Facing cancer without the support of the love of her life and the person who stood by her side through thin and thick meant the loss of Lauren’s strength.
Lauren was not afraid of dying, but the absence of her husband overwhelmed her. Despite the love from her family and her daughter, who stood by her side at all times, Lauren was never the same again.
Lauren spent several weeks at the hospital. An oxygen machine provided her the air she needed to keep her lungs functioning. Eventually the pain became unbearable. Her family gathered around her as frequently as they could to be by her side for what it seemed to be her final moments.
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Part III: Losing Her
Lauren and her family started to lose hope; chemo wasn’t an option, but a torture for Lauren’s exhausted body. Lauren knew her time was coming to an end; she started saying her goodbyes to the people who brought happiness to her life.
Nancy photographed her mother’s last day on this Earth on December 6, 2014. With her portraits, the artist managed to capture her parents’ essence and strength.
Every stage of their condition became an album where Nancy kept the meaning and strength of their life in the form of pictures. Sometimes they laughed; other times they appeared devastated. They were always together, body and soul.
“I photographed my parents to hold on to their memory and to capture their essence and strength in such a trivial time. Everyone wants to find purpose in his or her life. My parents’ final purpose was found in this moment, in this gift that they gave to me: allowing me to tell their story —a love story— and the story of our family and the legacy they have left behind. When time stops, what was all of this for? They did it for us,” she shares on her website.
The day she said goodbye to her mother, she knew it was time for her parents to meet again, in a different context. Through her parents’s story she learned a valuable lesson. “Cancer gave my family a harsh, yet valuable gift: an awareness of time,” commented Borowick in an article for Lens Culture.
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All photos are credited to Nancy Borowick. To know more about her work, you can find her on social media or her website.
