Chace Beech, 26
Los Angeles, CA
“I’ve been thinking about how much more physically close I am to my dad now than I was before he got sick. Suddenly I am holding him all the time. I'm lifting him; I’m moving him around. Especially now that he cannot really talk, I’ll often get into the bed with him and hug him because it is a way for me to be with him.”
Three years ago, Chace moved across the country and back into her childhood home to help care for her dad, Steve, after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.
“In my house, we have pictures everywhere; it's like a museum of my life. I have a complicated relationship with pictures of my dad and our life before he got sick, because now, he will never be the same. It will never go back.”
“It is exploding out of every area of our house.
Just stuff
on stuff
“Long-term illness, slow illness, infiltrates every part of our house. Our laundry room is now a medical closet. My parent's bedroom is a medical room. The equipment is everywhere.”
“It’s just the way that life - these weird parts of life - are constantly bumping up against each other.”
on stuff.”
“Navigating other people's expectations based on how it looks from the outside has been one of the most challenging things for me.”
“I remember the guy who brought the hospital bed into the house two years ago. He was totally nice, but there was something he said or did that made it clear he thought this was going to be a bed for a person who was dying soon. That wasn’t the case, obviously. My dad is still alive.”
“This is Puck and he is obsessed with my dad. My dad loves animals and he loves this dog, they are always together. Puck hurt his paw recently - it's just two old dogs dealing with their ailments.”
“He has had a pony tail my whole life and cowboy boots and he drives this big truck. He lived in Woodstock for a long time.”
“He’s just, like, cool, you know.”
“Throughout all of this, he’s never lost his hair. It’s so funny.”
“It's the small, simple things that have just become so challenging.”
“I feel like I've aged so much in the past few years and yet my setting is the same as it has been since I was 10. That’s just another part of this whole thing. I live with my parents and I live in my childhood bedroom.”
“I like his eyes; they are this beautiful blue. So much of him has physically changed. His eyes just don’t.”
“Even though it's been the most challenging time of all our lives, I feel grateful for this time in a way, to have been able to spend so much time together.”
