Documenting the Alzheimer's Ephemeral: Calling the Birds Home

Photographer Cheryle St. Onge picked up her camera to document detailed, life-like carvings her mother, Carole, created and to distract herself from watching Carole fade away.

"With my camera, I document the joy and the light of her last years of life — the ways that she circles back home, even as she is leaving," Cheryle writes.¹

Carole was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2015 and passed away in 2020. What Cheryle and Carole were able to create together is the award-winning photo series called "Calling the Birds Home."

Bob and Diane fund

The newest winner of the Bob and Diane Fund award, Cheryle's series is a beautifully stunning archive of these final moments that the mother-daughter duo shared.

In a personal essay accompanying the series, Cheryle writes about how the act of creating with her mother provided "a counterbalance to the conversation with her about death, as a means to capture the ephemeral nature of the moment and of life."

The final product is simply breathtaking, showcasing a wealth of emotions and states of being fostered in their love and a shared pursuit of the ephemeral.

The Bob and Diane Fund is gifted to visual storytellers who depict Alzheimer's disease or dementia. "We want to help artists create powerful work that increases the understanding of the disease and inspires research to end it," the website says. It is run by Gina Martin, founder and executive director, who began the fund in honor of her parents.

Calling the birds home

In one image, Carole is clad in a poncho or raincoat, on a beautifully sunny day, and playfully spraying a dog with the hose.

In another, Carole is making a snow angel, bespectacled and clad in a fur coat. I find the juxtaposition telling me to embrace moments of joy in all their forms, for they are as fleeting as life itself.

Cheryle writes in her essay, "Since her death, I have come to so better understand just how much of a collaboration this work was. Just how much she suggested, aided and just every damn day was enthusiastically willing to spend time with me and to take pictures together."

I personally love how free Carole is, unencumbered by what she should be or how she should act, finding compassion for a horse, joy in a bubble, and peace sitting naked with a disco ball.

"On the best days, her behavior is amusing," Cheryle writes in the New York Times. "Her laugh is so easy and contagious. She is effervescent and finds joy in the smallest places."

The conversations that are begun by this artwork are one of the many benefits of the award, year after year.

"Though every project and proposal is different — there is one universal theme and that is wanting to find a cure for Alzheimer's and dementia," Martin says in an email.

"The Bob and Diane Fund believes that photography can bring visual awareness to a disease that is difficult to document and understand. Awareness brings understanding, empathy, and support.

"Alzheimer's should not live in the shadows or carry shame. It's a disease just like cancer but with no cure to date. We need to bring light to this disease and have those conversations."

Depths of love

Cheryle writes, "I continue to be devastated by her absence but the profound loss is because of our love of one another."

And I honestly don't know anyone else who has captured loss and life so impeccably in both words and images. You can view the whole series here and find Cheryle online.