Bingo

Bingo, Spring 2011.

I took this photograph my junior year in high school. That year I spent every Friday afternoon at a local retirement home in Clemson, South Carolina.

I remember bits and pieces from the afternoon that this photo was taken. Lemon jello and vanilla pudding was distributed exactly at 2pm as the residents gathered for Bingo hour.

From across the room I spotted a gentle faced woman sitting alone with her bingo card out and ready. I came up and asked her if I could join her and she replied sweetly and welcomed me to sit next to her. We played a few rounds of bingo quietly until I finally asked if I could take her picture. She again nodded sweetly and looked up at me just in time for me to take a picture.

To this day, I still regret not asking her for her name and I can’t help but to think of where she is now. This has everything and nothing to do with what we’ve been discussing in class. I guess i’ve just been thinking about bodies and how quickly we age, how time escapes through the cracks of our fingers. I wonder if she’s still alive, still gathering religiously at 2pm for bingo and jello.