Marcy Pusecker is 96-years-old and has been diagnosed with dementia and cannot speak or move. She has been a part of the hospice program for over a year and relies completely on her daughter, Pat Connor, and various employees of the Appalachian Visiting Nurse Association to survive. They help her eat, drink, bathe, clip her nails, comb her hair, etc.

Mary has been living in a single room in her daughter’s home in Chauncey, Ohio for a year and a half. She is hooked up to a catheter that must be emptied and cleaned fairly frequently. Besides having to take care of her mother, Pat Conor’s husband passed away in February of 2008. Pat has been through very hard times but still manages to keep a positive outlook on life.

Photographs and text by Dan Krauss.