War Is Personal

Eugene Richards

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RICHMOND HEIGHTS, OHIO, 2008. Gail doesn’t get to sleep until 2:00 a.m., is up again with Shurvon at 3:30, to turn and suction him. She gets up again at 6:00 to get him his meds and flush his breathing tube; that’s when she gives him water, so he’s hydrated. Then she wakes up to get her grandchildren ready for school. After that, she might give him his bed bath. “I get all between his toes,” she says, “all between his fingers. Just lying there, you can get very smelly.”

Eugene Richards, "War Is Personal," in POYi Archive, Item #44695, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/44695 (accessed November 23, 2024).