Summer Puente moved 2,538 miles across country back home to explore what family really meant. More importantly, to explore what unconditional love meant. Summer has a sister called Sonny, aged 25, who lives at home with their single father. Sonny has Cerebral Palsy. She has the cognitive ability of a two or three year old, with limited speech and mobility and function. Like a baby, she is trapped within the temperament of a toddler yet in the body of a young woman. Sonny’s only escape from a body she has no control over is her and Summer’s dad. A dad that is now a full time carer while he works another full time daily job he hates.
Sonny and her dad sit in front of the TV every night and fall asleep together on the big chair, just like the picture above, however Summer remembers many less peaceful times, where her sister would scream through the night. Summer would take the car and leave as soon as her dad got in because she couldn’t handle it. Her dad did not have that choice, and nor would he had taken it if he had.
Their dad has been a single parent for 13 years now. He works any job, no matter how boring and no matter how long the hours in order to support his girls. Summer admires how her father has suffered the most yet continues to be a man who loves the most unconditionally. She says “I’m one of his daughters, and there are fewer things in this world I’m prouder to be.”
Read more about Sonny, Thomas, and Summer Puente at Cowbird.com
*Photos by Summer Puente as posted at Cowbird.com.
