The sliding door was wide open and Michael, the Japanese exchange student, sat in the backseat, clutching onto the fur of the great white expanse of dog that was Jenny. I waved at Grandpa as he drove the van past us. He waved back but Michael didn’t, I assumed because Jenny would have leapt out into the road like the buffoon she had been if not restrained.
When I told my mom and grandma this their faces dropped and they asked me to go into the other room. It was only a few years later that he wasn’t able to remember my name. Now, as I watched your elderly hands slowly steer the Oldsmobile up and over the roundabout, I wondered if anyone had spoken worriedly about you behind closed doors yet.
Portrait by James Lauder for #POBEshow 2014