My Very Last Visit To Mary Poh's Trailer

When I first met Mary twenty-five years ago she was a vibrant 59 years old and still running her antique shop across the street from North Miami city hall. Even years after she retired she'd spend weekends stopping by every yard sale she could find. She knew her paintings, jewelry and porcelain, and she often picked up some good pieces for a pittance. More than once she shipped off a fifty cent find to Sotheby's or Christies where it was auctioned off for big bucks. I used to shoot the pictures for her to send to the auction houses so they could pick what they wanted her to send.

The last few years her eye sight started to fail, she had to stop driving, and recently she started to become very paranoid and forgetful. I stayed in touch with her councelor, telling her to please let Mary live with her little dog and her trailer full of cats as long as possible. This photo was about three weeks ago. I'm on the right, one of her neighbors is in the center, and almost hidden in the shadows on the left sits Mary. A couple of days later I got the call. They were taking her to Jackson, the county hospital, for evaluation and probable placement in an assisted living facility. Another few days went by and Mary called, cursing me out in language that I never thought that a proper lady of her generation would know. She was convinced that I was the one responsible for her being in the hospital. There was no talking to her. She just won't talk with me. One of her neighbors went to visit her and he called to say that she was doing OK. After taking her to the doctors and grocery shopping every week for a few years, I really miss her.