In 2008 my father was diagnosed with a rare motor neuron disease called progressive bulbar palsy. We had never heard of anything like that before. It is a degenerative disease where the central nervous system shuts down. It rendered him unable to speak for the last year and a half of his life and unable to eat for the last year. My father faced the disease with grace. A close friend of mine, Nicole, came to visit and observed that monks go into retreat, they don't speak and they don't eat as a means of reaching enlightenment, my mother and my sisters and I witnessed how he transformed. He was brave in the face of it. He passed away on the 27th of June 2010.
All images © Monique Pelser 2010
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