Please join Synkroniciti in welcoming Houston writer Catherine Gentry with “Eruption,” a perceptive piece of flash fiction about communicating with loved ones in states of cognitive decline. How do we ease the process, nurture dignity, and enjoy the precious company of those who are vanishing from us?
“”Follow me.” My father gestures impatiently, mumbling as he shuffles down the hall. He is eighty-five, with only a tuft of white hair and a disintegrating vocabulary. “It’s in the upstairs, that room, the arctic…” He shakes his head, frustration flooding his features. I try to make out some meaning in between the words that don’t connect, but it’s like chunks of a sequence are missing, a Scrabble game with lost pieces.”
There is so much empathy in Catherine’s writing, as well as a relatable pathos which is familiar to many of us. We sense the life in this man, the desire to engage even as his words fail, and we are pulled into the frustration, awkward humor and love that exist in this father-daughter relationship. Catherine gives us a gentle, tender portrait of aging that remains powerful and bittersweet without being sentimental.
Read “Eruption” in Synkroniciti’s “Identity” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Catherine Gentry is a Houston writer dedicated to compassionate creativity. She holds a BA in English from Princeton University and practiced environmental law before retiring to raise her three now grown children.
Her essays and stories have been published in The Houston Chronicle, The Princeton Alumni Weekly, and Women Under Scrutiny: An Anthology of Truths, as well as in online publications including Grown and Flown and Literary Mama, and her short story, “Shimmer,” was featured in the Journey Into Time anthology. She enjoys collaborating on literary and visual arts projects and as a Writer in Residence with Writers in the Schools, visits classrooms across the Houston area to teach and inspire student writers. She is an avid accidental gardener.