A Rose is Still a Rose…

I first met Rose in ‘86, when we joined eight other cyclists in a cross country trek across America. There were five routes all together. Our route rode from LA to NY, and we met with riders from the other routes in Washington DC for the last portion of our trip. Rose and I spent a lot of time riding together… she was 18, and I was 23. Now, numerous years later, I drove cross country and was able to meet up with Rose and her family in Connecticut. As of two or three years ago, she was diagnosed with ALS, and is currently confined to a wheelchair and depends on her loving husband and family to help her with most everything. Despite everything she’s gone through these past few years, she’s still Rose. She’s still the funny girl I rode my bicycle cross country with. Only now, she uses the pupils of her eyes to spell words on her computer, so it takes a bit longer to communicate; but she’s still the same Rose I had an absolute blast with close to forty years ago. It was an honor to photograph her with her family during my short time with them in the summer of 2014.