The nuns, who are members of the Dominican order, care for those of all religions and backgrounds \u201d\u201d Laub\u2019s mother-\u00c2\u00adin-\u00c2\u00adlaw was Jewish \u201d\u201d and live by the prescient words of its founder, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, a daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne: \u201cWe cannot cure our patients, but we can assure the dignity and value of their final days, and keep them comfortable and free of pain.\u201d\u009d (The Hawthorne Dominicans also operate similar homes in Atlanta and Philadelphia.)<\/p>\n
As the nuns cared for their guests, Laub followed them with her camera \u201d\u201d it\u2019s her way. Then, even after her mother-\u00c2\u00adin-\u00c2\u00adlaw died in late September, she found herself returning to Rosary again and again, still wanting to capture something of the kindness that her family had found there. She asked the nuns to sit for portraits, in which she stripped away the background to show their eyes and faces in clear focus. \u201cI wanted them to be quiet,\u201d\u009d she said, \u201cso their power could come through.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The nuns in particular had moved her. She was struck by their tenderness with the dying, how they painted women\u2019s fingernails and combed their hair, changed them into fresh nightgowns and arranged flowers in their rooms. \u201cThis is how dying should be,\u201d\u009d Laub says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like a place of death. It feels like a place of living.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n