Standing In the Living Room (2023)

My father was sick for many years. My early twenties were spent worrying that he would die. At one of the most formative points in my life, the person who build my understanding of the world was deteriorating. When Covid-19 ended up claiming his life 2021, I regretted not taking more pictures of him. In a state of grief, I turned to the internet to seek out the connection that was missing. A man named Larry immediately reached out. I quickly learned that he and my dad have a lot in common. We arranged a call and he openly told me the story of his 32 year old son's fatal overdose only a few years earlier. He spoke with emotion and pain and was so expressive. He was angry and confused as to why opioids continue to run rampant in our community. I revealed to him that my Dad also experienced losing a son to heroin. My half-brother died in 2009, but my Dad was rarely expressive when talking about the loss. Larry and I built a collaborative relationship on a common understanding of loss. He didn’t fill the hole that my father's death left behind, but he allowed me to talk about the pain of losing a parent and a sibling. The work we made grew out of the process of spending time together and exploring what it means to find meaningful connection in strangers.