Loss for Words
Risograph-printed zine, edition of 25, 2024
Zine was a part of an installation made for the “Gato Encerrado: A Meditation on Uprootedness, a Preface to Goodbye” exhibition at Compund Yellow, Chicago.
May 1 is a great day to die.
That’s what paramedics told my grandmother when she called for an ambulance for her husband. My grandfather died on May 1, 2023. His heart stopped, after tripping. It felt spontaneous but honest. After he slipped away, my grandmother wished he had lived longer. However, May 1 is a great day to die, she said to me. Just think about it: Labor Day and the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker. That fits your grandfather.
I flew to Poland on April 14, 2024 to say goodbye to her. I was not sure how one does it, so I told her what the weather was like. I knew she always wanted to be updated. I also told her that I love her and she should not be afraid. She couldn’t speak. She died on April 19 at 3pm. It was St. Expeditus day, patron for procrastinators. In December 1986, my father took a family picture at his mother’s house. His father wasn’t a part of it as that year he was in Chicago.
I brought the photo back from Poland. I showed it to a few people and asked them to interpret it without knowing the context.