Heather Young

There, There

“I don’t think I’m doing very well,” Ruth Mackie tells her doctor during a cognitive exam. An elderly Nova Scotian woman struggling with dementia, Ruth likes feeding pigeons and playing TV bingo. She believes that her home is infested with bugs and that they live inside her, too. Ruth’s pregnant young caretaker, Shannon is grappling with her abandonment by the baby’s father, a race-car driver. As Ruth’s cognition deteriorates, these two women overlooked by society leave an indelible impression on each other.