A Light in the Dark
Eloise Hill sits on a piano bench, rhythmically moving with the music echoing from her fingers into the halls of a memory care facility in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was a piano teacher all of her adult life. The music is a part of her soul. She remembers every note.
She looks to Ward, her husband, as he sits next to her. Married for over 68 years, both Eloise and Ward have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Which song should be next?” she asks her husband.
Ward’s suggests that she plays, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”— one of their favorites. Eloise smiles and turns toward the piano again. It is the exact song she had played minutes before. Ward subtly smiles and looks into the distance, remembering another time.
With the help of the Alzheimer’s Association Nebraska Chapter, I documented the daily life of The Hills while they resided in memory care facility. With inspiration stemming from my own grandmother’s diagnosis, the goal was to understand a disease that transformed a woman I love into someone who now rarely recognizes me.
For eight months, my camera served as the shield separating me from the harsh reality of witnessing an individual slowly declining in front of my eyes. It also served as my key to understanding how one can shine through their diagnosis.
Alzheimer’s disease does not represent the soul of these men and women. Once diagnosed, new realities emerge for these individuals, their caretakers and loved ones. I have learned that Alzheimer’s is a harrowing disease— but there are times of both sorrow and solace.
Eloise and Ward participate in the memory-care facility's various programs, including attending gym classes. The facility believes that an active body and mind is one way to avoid the side effects of Alzheimer's.
Mementos of the couple's past are displayed in their room at a memory-care facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, where they now reside. They were married in 1948.
Increasingly, there are days that Ward does not remember his wife. He has moments when he thinks that other women living in the memory-care facility are Eloise, the person who he built his life with.
Even though Ward may not mentally always remember Eloise, he physically relies on her guidance, almost always holding his wife's hand to navigate through his increasingly unfamiliar world. Over time, he became quieter, his wife instead speaking for him.
After falling one morning, Eloise and the couple’s caretaker, Kathleen, check Ward into a local emergency room. He sits in a hospital bed, hands outstretched. Unable to assist her husband in the situation, Eloise sits in the corner of the hospital room, watching their caretaker and a doctor instead help him.
Eloise's caretaker curls her hair at least once a week. Since moving into the memory-care facility, Eloise now rarely styles her own hair or showers on her own. Still, she remembers her favorite hairstyle, the pageboy, which she had in college.
For the memory-care facility’s annual Christmas caroling concert, Eloise played the carols on piano for the other residents to sing along to. She was able to remember all of the music notes, but just not the number of times she had played each chorus. All of her adult life, Eloise was a piano teacher. At one time, she had more than 60 students visiting her home each week. The disease affects some parts of the brain more than others.
Ward, unaware of where to go after standing up, listens to the couple's caretaker, Kathleen, during an outing one afternoon. She believes that it is beneficial for those diagnosed with the disease to get out and see things, to keep their memory sharp and establish normality.
The couple's son and his wife pick up Ward and Eloise from the memory-care facility every Saturday morning. Ward's life had been at his Seventh Day Adventist church. For years, he was a theology professor at the church's college. He never forgets about attending the weekly Sabbath.
Eloise and Ward's children created a guest book for those that visit the couple, to make it easier for them to remember.
Eloise stares out the windshield of her caretaker's vehicle while on an outing.
Even though they may not always remember each other, the love shared between Eloise and Ward remains.
Ward sits in the couple's room. When he and his wife still lived in their home, Ward would sit outside and watch the squirrels and the birds play. In April 2017, Ward passed away, leaving Eloise behind.