A year ago, filmmaker Travis LaBella began filming his grandmother, Shirley Hershkowitz, every time he visited her. The result is this short film, “Grandma Shirley,” a touching portrayal of caring for the elderly.
The film chronicles the visits and what happens between them. When Grandma Shirley falls and breaks her hip, she must move out of her house and into a nursing home. Shirley overcomes her post-surgery pain and learns to walk again, while also adjusting to her new home.
We get a peek at the minutiae of these regular visits: going through your grandparents’ refrigerator with them to throw out expired food, and the little arguments the task sets off. Grandma Shirley’s opinion on the matzah industry’s freshness priorities is particularly funny: “What do you think they do when they sell matzah? They put it away for next year.”
Grandma Shirley also has a quiet strength: In the voicemail she left for her daughter explaining that a sudden fall sent her to the hospital, her voice is remarkably calm. When the family learned that Shirley would have to move into a nursing home after living independently for years, her daughter tells us, “She took it much better than I did.”
