I have heard three versions of what happened to my mother’s cousin Sylvia. My father recounted that Sylvia’s husband was caught up in shady dealings and then died an untimely, but seemingly natural, death. According to him, Sylvia then took her own life, as she never recovered from her broken heart. In my mother’s version of events it was said that the autopsy showed that Sylvia had an advanced undiagnosed brain tumour and a dry cleaning bill from her last day showed an erratic signature, potentially backing this up. Sylvia hadn’t left a suicide note so the detectives extrapolated that the pressure from the tumour literally made her go crazy and shoot herself. My mother continues to muse upon how Sylvia’s husband (who was very much alive in this version) began behaving strangely after Sylvia’s death, re-marrying rapidly, cutting off contact with the family and coming into a vast fortune, never to be heard of again. In Sylvia’s mother (my great-aunt’s) version, Sylvia’s husband was indeed embroiled in dark, perhaps even covert, dealings and Sylvia, caught in the middle, was assassinated by the F.B.I. My great aunt was a logical and rational person in every aspect of her life except for Sylvia. She was never able to come to terms with what her daughter had done to herself.

2006
Cibachrome mounted on Dibond
40X40 inches (edition of 3 + 2AP’s)
30X30 inches (edition of 5 + 3AP’s)
9X9 inches (edition of 25 + 5AP’s)