War Is Personal

Eugene Richards

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DEDHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, 2008. Despite the surgical setbacks, Nelida feels progress is being made. “In the beginning,” she says, “Jose was not feeling pain. If you touched his head or rubbed it too hard or pried open his fingers, he didn’t feel it. But now he will cry. It is a bad thing, but a wonderful thing that he is regaining feeling.” Whenever she can, Nelida tries to get Jose out of the hospital, to her tiny apartment close by. On Easter, his 12-year-old daughter, Mercedes, came to visit. She kissed her father, pulled playfully on his hair and ears, then lay her head in his lap.

Eugene Richards, "War Is Personal," in POYi Archive, Item #44709, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/44709 (accessed November 23, 2024).