Keaton Hudson

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

TURKEY | Monday, 14 January 2013 | Views [195] | View Larger Image

Sofie was one of the first women I befriended in the Home, carting her in her wheelchair from the mess hall to her room. Although we didn’t speak the same language, she gave me a roll of Mentos as a token of her thanks. As I sat with her that afternoon, she began to sing and pray intimately, and I unobtrusively captured her portrait.

Serj was one of the many residents of Fransiz Fakirhanesi, the rest home that I served in in Istanbul, Turkey. Over one hundred elderly live in the Home, and each receive a room, meals, and personal care from the Catholic sisters live and serve in the Home. The sisters take in residents to love on and care for at Fransiz Fakirhanesi often because they have no family to visit or take care of them; essentially each resident is patiently waiting here to die. On this particular day Serj and I sat together as he shared stories of growing up in the days of the early Turkish Republic. As he paused, staring out the adjacent window, I quietly snapped this photo.

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Servet seemed comparatively keen on his life in the Home, and I would find him weekly on this patio, either just sitting or otherwise smoking cigarettes. This particular afternoon he grew nostalgic as he relived to me his days as a North African bus driver for the British Army. The way I understood he would drive the doctors to their destinations, and I watched as his wrinkled and stretched fingers would retrace his route along the deserts of North Africa. Shortly afterwards I retreated from the porch to snap his pensive portrait.

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Keaton Hudson

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

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