In order to go deeper within the work, Borowick asked for transparency from both of her parents when discussing her mother’s illness to try to remove the parental shield they put up in order to protect their children.
“It was the first time I got to know them as individuals and not just my parents,” she said about the process. She would end up showing the work on Time’s photo blog Lightbox and was overwhelmed by the response from people who reached out and shared similar stories with her.
And then, in 2013, while her mother was still battling cancer (she had gone into remission in the fall of 2010 but the cancer came back a year later), they found out her father had metastatic stage-4 pancreatic cancer. Suddenly, Borowick and her younger brother and older sister found themselves caring for two gravely ill parents, both of whom were still in their 50s. Borowick's mother was not only taking care of herself, but also wanted to be the caregiver for her husband.
“When my father was diagnosed, she turned her focus to him, while she also cared for herself,” Borowick said. “She was superhuman in many ways, but as one of her daughters, I felt like it was my duty to step up and support because she always put others before herself.”
Borowick once again headed to Chappaqua.