Inside STAT: ‘You keep loving each other’: A window into dementia at the end of life

POUL AND ELSE MATHIASSEN IN THEIR HOUSE IN SKANDERBORG IN DENMARK. (SOFIE MATHIASSEN)

For Poul Mathiassen, Parkinson’s disease came as a cascade of losses. First, he could no longer control his toothbrush. Then he couldn’t remember his friends’ names. During the four years his granddaughter, photographer Sofie Mathiassen, spent chronicling his experience of dementia, she captured images of his increasing frailty but also of the 57-year relationship he’d built with his wife, Else. These moments are at once difficult and tender, a testament to the tiny, everyday actions that constitute care. Else shaves Poul, keeping him steady with a thumb and finger on the back of his neck. She helps him take a few halting steps, holding his hands as if in a careful dance. You can see more of Mathiassen’s powerful photo essay here.