Cassandra | Displaced to Queen Anne

Images by Colin Stanley Hovde. Words by Adriana Nodal-Tarafa.
April 14, 2020

Cassandra's family photoshoot happened just a few blocks away from our building in Lower Queen Anne. That day, the familiar scenes around us felt somehow new. I realized that inside the factory-turned-Slovak-neighborhood-beerhall, the large communal tables now sit empty. 

We had meant to check this gathering spot out before we knew no one would be able to. The building catches my eye almost every time before I cross Snoqual, the Moon Transformer's threshold, by Roger Fernandes. Will this Pivná Hala survive?

The hotel where we were headed sits just behind Queen Anne Beerhall. Cassandra, her partner, and her father checked in to the Homewood Suites late in February, while a roof repair was made to their Magnolia home. Then, the gravity of the pandemic began to hit Seattle. The roof repair had to be suspended. Weeks in the hotel turned into months of physical distancing without a confirmed checkout date in sight. Cassandra's dad is chronically ill.  

Cassandra chose to dress up for the portrait, it has been a minute since she's had the chance to enjoy that. She and her family were all due to travel to Arizona the day after our photoshoot for her father's medical treatment.

“It's heartbreaking [...] that this picture will, either be a memory of the time we were isolated together in a hotel, or the last picture taken with all three of us [...].”

"As someone with two older parents, I take them to doctor appointments, to see specialists, and now all of a sudden, I'm cut out of their treatment. They get home, and they end up asking for help with interpreting something the doctor said, and I can no longer help them.
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Everything has been moved online, and for some people in my family, they don't have the capabilities to have teleconference appointments, so they aren't being treated. Period.
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I think telemedicine is great; I object to it being the only option. [I hope] Innovation in the healthcare system [continues], [like] being able to make 'home' visits.”