Mary Rachel Fanning

Wave
archival inkjet print
19 x 13 in.

Lunch at The Manor
archival inkjet print
13 x 19 in.

My Grandma has Alzheimer’s.  I arrive at The Manor in Nashville. My cousin Jerard greets me and says, “Grandma’s gotten loose.” We find her staring into a poster—one of those flowery landscapes. She reaches up to pull my face closer to hers, gives me a kiss and smiles, “Oh, there you are!”  We walk her back to the room where Grandpa is briefly escaping into the television. Before driving them to the IHOP for dinner I carefully buckle up my 86-year-old grandmother in the seat just like she buckled me when I was 6.”

© Mary Rachel Fanning