Solsona

jgl 002,
originally uploaded by jgluz71.

This is my mother in a good mood. When this photo was taken, my father and I just returned from the states. Upon first seeing my mother I was shocked to see how old she'd turned, but then later realized she hadn't really changed much in the years she's been here. I can never tell how she's really doing, because she always says she's dying, but then the next minute she's laughing because the help just made a joke at my father's expense (most likely something about a gun with no bullets). She had a stroke maybe 4 or 5 years ago now, the residual effects being coughing every time she drinks and eats as if she's choking and difficulty with names (this is not to say she doesn't recognize anyone, but sometimes she calls them by the wrong name, e.g., since her stroke she refers to me or my brother as Sammy, the name of her long dead younger borther, her only other sibling. If you ask her to correct herself, then with some effort she gives you the right name, but nights when she would wake me up to help her to get out of bed to be changed or to use the bathroom, she would be calling for Sammy.