Alexandra Corcode

Visual Storyteller

I was made to die but I'm here to stay with you

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Focus: Photojournalist, Photo Assistant, Multimedia, Creative, Photography, Foreign, Portraiture, Lifestyle, Visuals Editor, Arts & Culture, Freelance, Life, Assignments, Visual Communications , Explorer, Creative Professional, Artist, Short Films, Book Designer, Photo Shoots, Storyteller, Visual Artist, Grant Writer, Visual Editor, Long Form Reporter, Arts Journalism, Breaking News, Reportage, Creator, Visual Journalist, Visual Storyteller, Visual Storytelling

School: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague Danish School of Media and Journalism

Susana Pușcaș, born 1927, and V...n high volume. Bistrita Romania

Susana Pușcaș, born 1927, and Victor Pușcaș, born 1925, live in Victor’s parental home in a small village in Bistrița-Năsăud county, Romania. In the evenings, Victor waits for Susana to make his bed and change his clothes while listening to the TV on high volume. Bistrita Romania

Susana prays before going to sl...knife threats. Bistrita Romania

Susana prays before going to sleep while Victor waits for her to finish her ritual. Susana was a housewife all of her life, taking care of the daughter and husband, the garden, and the animals. In her spare time, she was making blankets that she would later sell, making a good amount of money. Victor worked as a blacksmith and as a farmer, but since he was a refugee in Hungary, he also received money supplements from the government. Owning two apartments in the city, they would often rent them, having another source of income. Considered wealthy people because their pension was more significant than the average and because they kept their money in the house, a common practice in Romania, they suffered from a lot of robbery attacks and knife threats. Bistrita Romania

Susana and Victor sit on the be...eir neighbors. Bistrita Romania

Susana and Victor sit on the bench in front of their house after Susana cleaned the front yard of leaves, making a fire. Usually, in the afternoons they spend a few hours on the bench watching people and socializing with their neighbors. Bistrita Romania

The yard of Susana and Victor&#...king food too. Bistrita Romania

The yard of Susana and Victor's house. They keep a few chickens for meat and dogs and a dog to protect the house from thieves. The house does not have running water and the toilet is located in their garden. During the winter, they use a stove with wood to heat the room they are living in, which is used for cooking food too. Bistrita Romania

Victor sits patiently in the ki...o feel Susana. Bistrita Romania

Victor sits patiently in the kitchen while Susana is talking to him from the patio. He is used to sitting for long periods of time waiting to feel Susana. Bistrita Romania

Victor is helped by their niece...ime with them. Bistrita Romania

Victor is helped by their niece, Camelia, to dress while Susana is watching sitting on her bed inside their home. Camelia and her family come every weekend from Bistrița (a city 34 km away from the village) to help them with the chores and the garden but also to spend time with them. Bistrita Romania

Victor is falling asleep after ...night again?”. Bistrita Romania

Victor is falling asleep after Susana helped him change his clothes and lay down. He lost the sense of time due to his blindness and deafness and he often asks Susana “Is it night again?”. Bistrita Romania

Susana is resting her head on a...d mental pain. Bistrita Romania

Susana is resting her head on a walking stick in the yard of her houseafter she was released from the hospital. She was sexually assaulted in an attempted robbery attack on the 30th of June 2019. Susana was in her yard when she was attacked by a Roma man recently released from prison. She was left helpless on the ground, ten meters away from Victor who was waiting for her in the house not knowing what happened. Susana had to get up and call the police and the medical care by herself. She broke several ribs and it took six months to recover from the physical and mental pain. Bistrita Romania

Susana has her wounds dressed b...iece, Camelia. Bistrita Romania

Susana has her wounds dressed by her neiece, Camelia. Bistrita Romania

A month after the assault, Susa...n in the yard. Bistrita Romania

A month after the assault, Susana is washing herself in a basin in the kitchen of her house. Not having running water, she has to heat the water that she brings from the fountain in the yard. Bistrita Romania

Alexandru, Camelia’s husband, h...bed for weeks. Bistrita Romania

Alexandru, Camelia’s husband, helps Susana get up fron the bed to drink water. Susana’s pain from the broken ribs after the assault forced her to stay in bed for weeks. Bistrita Romania

Susana is feeling sick and Came... next to them. Bistrita Romania

Susana is feeling sick and Camelia is lighting a match as part of a religious disenchant for her to feel better. The disenchant consists of a series of prayers while lighting matches that fall into a glass of water. At the end of the ritual, Susana needs to drink from the water three times for her symptoms to go away. Victor is sleeping in the bed next to them. Bistrita Romania

The village doctor is checking ...main concerns. Bistrita Romania

The village doctor is checking Victor’s blood pressure while Susana and Lazor, a neihbour, are waiting. Victor’s health has declined significantly, water retention from the liver cirrosis and high blood pressure being two of the main concerns. Bistrita Romania

Susana is burning waste and pre...or the guests. Bistrita Romania

Susana is burning waste and preparing the yard for Victor’s burial. Victor died on the 8th of October 2019 suffering from liver cirrhosis caused by nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, three months after Susana’s sexual assault. In Romania, the dead family member is kept in the guest room of the house for three days, but Susana wanted to bury Victor on the sixth day after his death because Wednesdays and Fridays are fasting days in the orthodox religion and she wanted to serve food with meat for the guests. Bistrita Romania

Camelia and Susana are discussi...he photograph. Bistrita Romania

Camelia and Susana are discussing above Victor’s coffin while two neighbors are untying the knots of Victor’s tie, belt, and laces before the funeral ceremony. It is a Romanian superstition - the untying of the knots represents that the widow can continue his or her life, as well as the covering of the mirror in the left corner so that the dead won’t see himself in the mirror and come back. The portrait of their dead daughter, Măricica, is hanging in the center of the photograph. Bistrita Romania

Three men walking with the cros...ctor’s burial. Bistrita Romania

Three men walking with the crosses following the coffin to the cemetery at Victor’s burial. Bistrita Romania

Victor’s burial in the Sângeorz...e also buried. Bistrita Romania

Victor’s burial in the Sângeorzul Nou cemetery. The priest is reading the preacher while the neighbors and nephews are helping to position Victor in the grave where his daughter is son-in-law are also buried. Bistrita Romania

Susana sits on the grave of her...eir apartment. Bistrita Romania

Susana sits on the grave of her husband Victor, her daughter Măricica and her son-in-law Zaharie. On the gravestone are written their birth and death dates, being a common practice for Romanians to build their grave with their birth date long before their death. Victor and Susana had twins, but the boy died a few days after the birth. The daughter, Măricica (born 1948), survived and lived happily together with her parents and husband until 1993 when one night she felt sick and went to the hospital. There, the doctors gave her an injection and she never woke up again, her cause of death remaining a mystery for everyone. No further investigations were taken after her death, Susana believed in spells cast by a neighbor because she found threads under Măricica’s bedsheets. Susana herself practices spells and in Romanian tradition, if a person is not guilty of something, the spell turns back to the maker. Two years after Măricica's sudden death, her husband was found dead in the bathtub of their apartment. Bistrita Romania

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Thumbnail of Susana Pușcaș, born 1927, and Vi_on high volume. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana prays before going to sle_ knife threats. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana and Victor sit on the ben_heir neighbors. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of The yard of Susana and Victor�_oking food too. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Victor sits patiently in the kit_to feel Susana. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Victor is helped by their niece,_time with them. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Victor is falling asleep after S_ night again?”. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana is resting her head on a _nd mental pain. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana has her wounds dressed by_eiece, Camelia. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of A month after the assault, Susan_in in the yard. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Alexandru, Camelia’s husband, he_ bed for weeks. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana is feeling sick and Camel_d next to them. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of The village doctor is checking V_ main concerns. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana is burning waste and prep_for the guests. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Camelia and Susana are discussin_the photograph. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Three men walking with the cross_ictor’s burial. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Victor’s burial in the Sângeorzu_re also buried. Bistrita Romania

Thumbnail of Susana sits on the grave of her _heir apartment. Bistrita Romania

Public Project

I was made to die but I'm here to stay with you

Updated Nov 2024

Location Bistrita-Nasaud, Romania

Topics Abandonment, Abuse, Crime, Deaf, Death, Documentary, Dying/Death, Family, Loneliness, Loss, Migration, Photography, Photojournalism, Romania, Rural, Sexual assault

Summary

Victor, 95, and Susana, 92, lived together in rural northern Romania for over 70 years, relying deeply on one another after the loss of their only child in 1993 and most of their family and friends. Their bond was tested when Susana survived a traumatic assault in 2019, which led to Victor’s health rapidly declining and his passing later that year. Left alone in an impoverished "ghost village," Susana’s story reflects the struggles of many elderly Romanians abandoned after the 1989 revolution, facing isolation, poverty, and vulnerability.

Victor, 95, and Susana, 92, have been married for over seventy years, living alone in the small village of Sângeorzul Nou in northern Romania. After the death of their only child in 1993, and those of family and friends they rely on each other totally. Victor had been blind for several years but after Susana was sexually assaulted in an attempted robbery in 2019 the couple became even more reliant on one another.
While Susana’s physical pain healed within a few weeks, the psychological trauma pushed the couple much further. Alone in a ghost village, their humble lifestyle became unbearably harsh. Liver cirrhosis put Victor in the hospital two months after Susana’s ordeal, and his death from the disease on October 8th 2019 has filled Susana’s remaining days with apprehension.

Their story isn’t unusual, for many of the four million people who fled Romania amid the 1989 revolution, there were elderly relatives and parents who were left behind. Without the presence of the younger kin, those who remained after the revolution were left doubly vulnerable to the precarity of life in impoverished rural areas - scant access to running water, phone lines, gainful employment, and a rise in violent crime.
Even though Victor and Susana had a comfortable life when they were younger the challenges of trying to cope without much outside support, pushed them into a hard and precarious life. This story is about the love and support that defined their relationship in the midst of the difficulties they faced.

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