Open Call

“Leave the Many and Hold the Few” is a brief glimpse into the relationship that I have with my nana. Last year, I moved home for one year after graduating from college in order to help take care of her. I served as a full-time domestic caretaker, responsible for meals, shopping, cleaning the house, bathing her, and other daily tasks. I am forever grateful to my father, uncle, sister and family friends for also helping to care for her, as they are now while I am in graduate school. Although Nana is bound to a wheelchair due to arthritis, her primary obstacle involves dementia. I have witnessed her mental decline, especially working with her consistently over the course of last year. She remains happy and light-hearted, but constantly asks the same questions, forgetting names and various facts as well as fabricating stories. The dementia slips in and out, and affects her in various ways. To me, the close moments I share with Nana, such as the times I brush or cut her hair, are intimate occurrences that we experience outside of talking. The dementia disturbing her memory has impacted our relationship, though it is harder for me, someone witnessing the decline, than it is for her because she is not, at this point, aware of what is happening to her. Although I had an extremely difficult year caring for Nana, I learned many things about myself as well as many valuable lessons in patience and persistence. I am grateful for this rewarding experience, even though Nana barely remembers my year with her. I hope this short video touches those people caring for the elderly who may be younger, like I am, and also for others to understand the hardships and routine, as well as happier moments, when caring for a person with dementia.

The footage from the video was recorded over the course of two years while I was performing daily responsibilities. The resulting piece, which actually derives from a much longer work, involves three occasions of grooming. The jumps cuts not only reiterate the repetition of the action, but comment on the constant need for hygienic upkeep when caring for someone unable to this for themselves. This editing strategy fractures time, not unlike the effects of dementia on Nana’s own mind and memory. The voiceover consists of Nana’s recollections of me as a child. Although it is unclear to outsiders, many of these memories have blurred with recollections of her sons as well as her other grandchildren. The voiceover is layered with ambient sounds of her space, and though hard to distinguish, her beloved basset hound Zucky. The last shots are purposefully long in order to emphasize the passing of time, and also communicate Nana’s speech pattern and mental challenges. Our relationship is established during the first few minutes of the work, yet the final hair-cutting scene demonstrates the effect of dementia on our bond. The title of the work derives from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Terminus.”

--C. Jacqueline Wood