Putting My Camera Down, and Finally Mourning My Parents

After documenting their deaths from cancer, one year apart, a photographer decides it’s time to look beyond her lens and focus on the legacy Mom and Dad left behind.

Photos by Nancy Borowick

The backbone of this story is my exploration of the compassion and strength of my parents when they were in parallel treatment for stage-four cancer. That version has been published dozens of times across six continents. But, while I’ve shared with the world the reality of Mom and Dad’s final chapters, which came to a close just 364 days apart, I hadn't examined the impact their experiences had on me and my brother and sister. This is my first attempt to do so, publicly.

I call my project, the subject of a forthcoming book I’m funding through Kickstarter, “Cancer Family” not “Cancer Parents,” for a reason: It’s because my whole family was diagnosed with the disease. Our lives were completely changed as we watched our mother and father undergo treatments and life changes, and our own roles in the family shifted as we became the caregivers, the support, the parents, in many ways. Our experience is an important one to talk about because so many have walked the same…