Doris, 73, 2007
16 x 20 inch digital pigment print

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Doris, 73

My mother, pictured here, was Oppositional Defiant towards her mother, for whom meals were an integral part of life.  At age 4 my mother would only eat food that came on a toothpick.  She and her sister were dubbed "The Pick Sisters", as they preferred to eat off other peoples’ plates.  When my father left, we moved in with my grandmother, and mom became bulimic and thin.  A few years later she graduated to purging with laxatives, trying to stay slim and beautiful. 

Now, as an older and still attractive woman, I find her with an empty refrigerator, drinking wine instead of eating dinner. If forced by her boyfriend to eat at a particular hour, it can ruin her whole day.  She prefers to eat alone.