OncoLink - Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania

Ella Koch was my first experience with someone I loved who had cancer. Since Ella lived alone, with no family to aid her, I would help her with shopping and health needs, and I arranged for a visiting nurse to come and bathe Ella with me.

I loved Ella as if she were my grandmother. I knew she had skin cancer, but was comfortable with the fact that it was a part of her existence. Photographing her was important then, but, it's more so now that she is gone. The print Ella portrays her as she was -- alone in a big house, sitting in her chair and looking out the picture window. It makes me smile whenever I look at this print -- it's Ella. Ella, my dear friend, died at age 93.