1973 EISENHOWER SILVER DOLLAR

This is Victoria Santos. Pictured with her is her personal aid Naima. On my way to Mt. Pleasant from Adams Morgan I walked directly by these two, who were calmly observing passersby in Rabaut Park. As I reached the intersection of Harvard Street and Mt. Pleasant Street, I looked down at the frame indicator on my camera, and it looked right back at me with the number 36. I was on my last frame of the roll. I turned around, and walked back towards Victoria and Naima. I just had to take a portrait.

As I reached Victoria, who is confined to a wheelchair, I leaned forward and introduced myself. I told her that I was a photographer and that I would be absolutely delighted to take a portrait of her, with her permission. I received a blank stare from Victoria in return. Naima, with a smirk on her face, says to me in Amharic, "you're gonna have to speak up. She doesn't have the best hearing."

I cleared my throat, leaned in even closer to Victoria, reintroduced myself, and repeated everything else I had said to her only a moment before, but this time at twice the vocal amplitude. Responding to my request for a portrait, Victoria gave me a big smile and said, "well sure! But you're gonna have to get low because I can't get out of this chair." I told her, with a chuckle in my voice, that it wasn't even remotely an issue. So I got low, and I took her portrait, with Naima in the background.

Victoria is 100 years old. She moved to Adams Morgan from a small town in Massachusetts in 1945. She was a newlywed at the time and it was her husband's personal and business affairs that brought her here. She has not left DC since.

"So I guess it's safe to say that DC is your home now," I kid with her.

"Ha! Well, of course. I haven't left this neighborhood."

I then enjoyed the many ways she was describing the change that the neighborhood has undergone in her 65 years as a resident. Most of the buildings that surrounded us weren't even built. There were way more trees. It wasn't nearly as crowded with people.

I asked Victoria how she felt as a 100-year-old. She said to me, "I never would have thought in a million years that I would live to be this old. I have outlived most of the members of my close family. My husband is dead, all of my siblings are dead, my cousins are dead, and I never had any children." I asked Victoria if she had any living relatives nearby and she told me that she has a niece that lives in Silver Spring.

We conversed a little longer before I said goodbye. What completely amazed me in my short time with Victoria was how incredibly lucid she was. Not a single sign of dementia or memory loss. She was able to carry on our conversation without repeating a single thing.

Her eyesight, however, has suffered quite a bit recently. In her thick New England accent she explained to me, "Ya know, those people at the hospital switched up my eye drops and the new stuff burned my eyeballs! I swear I can't see past 10 feet now. It's all their fault, but what're ya gonna do?"

It was amazing to have crossed Victoria's path.

been playing in silver efex again must be these cold long dark nights lol