Patricia Clark

I can't remember a time in my life as distinct as that when my sister Kathy was dying of a brain tumor. Her sickness and prognosis infiltrated every part of my life and deeply affected how I saw the world. Except in rare times at work or when I was teaching, the mortality lens was the one through which I saw the world, even the ordinary fall leaves at the park where I walked. I am often obsessed with fall leaves, their beauty and their ephemeral nature, wanting to pick up special ones and preserve them somehow. This particular year I saw spots of blood instead of the usual leaf markings. Nature can be a comfort, also a mirror. The leaves were still, oddly, a comfort to me.