When I was 12 my mother and father saved up a considerable amount of money to take me and my three brothers to Croatia to see my great-grandmother and great-grandfather, and I really could care less.

13 years later in 2025 I received news of my great-grandmother having a stroke at 94 years old, six years after her husband passed away, so I decided it was time to go back to see her one last time, and take in the roots of what life was like for my family before America.

She was bed ridden for six months, unable to move or really talk at all. I just felt sorry for her, it was almost like seeing a newborn, confused, unable to talk or see well, just looking around and staring off.

I told her thank you, and she started crying, her other two grandchildren were in the room, my cousins from America. My grandma just told her not to be sad, because she has us to live on for her, she stopped weeping after that. 

I think these photos are a celebration of this sad situation we call life.