onward and upward

Nearing the end of the 5th of 6 chemo sessions ... Alice is looking pretty cheerful, all things considered.  Yes, she's sitting on a bed - but that's because we were watching the US Open Women's Final.   Yes, indeed, she's holding what I'm beginning to feel is her trademark strawberry frozen yogurt popsicle.  (I don't know how she'll feel about them in the future, but I know that their smell is one I'll never want to sniff again, and I'm not the one consuming them).  Yes, she's being carefully guarded by the ever-faithful Moth.

I have, of course, her permission to post this photo - I wouldn't do so without letting her have a say in it.  These whole last three and a half months have thrown up so many issues for me about what I feel comfortable posting - but how far has it been an honest reflection of what I've been feeling, and what Alice has been going through?   Or how far is that conveyed between the lines (or between the flower stamens, or the individual fur-hairs, or whatever), for anyone with any imagination?  Probably.  But I have taken downbeat photos, that I wouldn't share - at least, not until Alice is the far side of all of this, and they become part of something else.  And that's the photographer/archivist in me.