Eva Verbeeck

I remember standing in an old gym in a high school in Brunswick in 2017. The smell of sweat had been replaced by the smell of hairspray, perfume, and lipstick and, instead of soccer shoes you could only hear heels clacking, people singing, moms yelling, and carts of dresses being wheeled through the hallways. I met Heather and Rebecca, as they were getting ready for their first performance. Heather was soflty combing the hair of Rebecca, a playful young woman with autism. That same year Heather had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I was asked by Heather to document their lives in these last years. Four years where things became beautiful celebrations of life stuck between now and later, certainty and uncertainty. These images serve as a memory to both Heather and Rebecca. A family portrait that helps us to understand the inevitability of age, illness, and the course of life. The work is shaped by feelings of belonging, and notions of family and has become an ode to the mother-daughter relationship.