While we’re on the subject of vintage photo-journals, might I highly recommend Gramp – A man ages and dies. The extraordinary record of one family’s encounter with the reality of dying.
In 1970, Frank Tugend (b. 1893 d. 1974), an upstanding family man and citizen of Glenburn, PA, began a tragic three-year decline brought about by generalized arteriosclerosis. His memory began to fail. At first, he lost the ability to drive. Then, the ability to remember who and where he was. The once polite man began to hallucinate and became aggressive to visitors. He and his family were ostracized by the community. His behavior was often erratic. Having lost the ability to bathe, dress, and control his bowels, he required constant care.
“On February 11, 1974, Frank Tugend, aged eighty-one and of dubiously sound mind- but certainly of sound body – removed his false teeth and announced he was longer going to eat or drink. Three weeks later to the day, he died.”
His life and death, 1970-1974, were recorded through interviews and hundred of photographs (the Jury family carried cameras and tape recorders the entire time), and condensed into a gorgeous 152 page volume. It is probably one of my favorite books of all time. It tackles difficult and undignified subject matter in a very complete, and often beautiful manner. It is a very emotional volume, to say the least.
Copies are readily available and inexpensive.
Jury, Mark, and Dan Jury. Gramp. New York: Grossman, 1976.
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