These photos tell the story of a fictional woman named Rosey who immigrated to Canada to be with her family after her husband passed away.
She did not like living with her daughter so she moves into a seniors housing centre where she feels isolated and unwelcomed.
Rosey refuses to leave her apartment and becomes lonely for companionship. Her daughter tries to spend time with her but she too has demands on her life. Rosey accuses her daughter of not loving her enough.
One of the neighbors comes over to give Rosey a kick in the behind as encouragement to leave the house. She tells Rosey she must learn english and she better do it soon. Rosey becomes more demoralized by this approach and therefor more isolated.
This is often where the story ends for some isolated new immigrant seniors, but ours, due to the insistence of the divas has a happy ending. In our story a loving english teacher finds Rosey.
She learns some Spanish in order to communicate with Rosey.
Rosey feels very welcomed by the teachers and decides to join in the classes, although she is somewhat reluctant.
Rosey has so much fun that she joins other classes and finds herself connected to a network of women whom she was originally isolated from.
A Cup Full of Life was a collaboration with The Divas (a group of New Immigrant Senior), Jewish Family Services, The City of Calgary and The Foundation Lab.
It is important to note that the women performed the production several times. Many of the women were working around cognitive issues and some were Holocast survivors. This production provided a social network for some who previously had none. They also remarked at having gained self confidence, empowerment and a renewed sense of purpose.
The story was very well recieved by the communities it was presented in. People were able to explore their own participation in their sense of isolation as well as explore ways of creating allies and suggesting opportunities for those less isolated to help.
