“I’m having a hard time manufacturing words right now.”

These were the first words Dad spoke to me when he found himself heavily sedated and physically restrained in intensive care.

So begins my chapter, “A Place for Dad,” which appears in the new book Care Home Stories, edited by Sally Chivers and Ulla Kriebernegg. It’s a hybrid piece in the tradition of Bakhtin that features the voices of my Dad and his primary caregiver and ends with a poem. Sally and Ulla set out to illuminate the paradoxes and continuities of residential care in their book. I think the cover photo speaks volumes.