Fading Time
My great-grandmother was a solitary old woman. She had lived alone for since my grandfather passed alway. Decades ago, it’s un-imaginably difficult for my great-grand mother, who took care of her six children in a situation of economic shortage during that time. “Although the old days was very impoverished and tough, all the family members always stick together. “ I still remember these words that she told me once she was drunk. However, until the day she passed away, the only thing would accompany her all the time is the past memories. In China, the solitary old people like my great-grandmother have not only physical torment of their age, but also their mental emptiness and loneliness. They are the easily forgotten ones from the modern society.
The life of my great-grandmother made me deeply reflect on family relationships and intimacy. Four years after I photographed her for this project, she passed away, and to my sadness, the issue of the elderly solitary was not significantly addressed or improved during this time. This has reinforced my wish to raise the awareness of the public and society on the issue of support and care for older people living alone. I hope to discover more people from the same age group as my great-grandmother and develop this project as a more prominent and ongoing series.
