"That's my job, taking care of her." --Classie
Clarice "Classie" Morant, 104, has been caregiver for her bedridden, 92-year-old sister, Rozzie Laney, for more than 20 years. Rozzie suffers from Alzheimer's. Classie has assistance from home health aides but remains fiercely independent, refusing any thought of a nursing home for herself or her sister.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"No, no, no. Don't go in no nursing home ... Here we both go together." -- Classie
Classie tends to her sister's needs. She feeds Rozzie fluids with a bottle and wipes away her tears. Rozzie is bedridden, blind and can no longer speak, except for moans. Classie purees her food and changes her diapers in the night. Home aides and hospice nurses provide some assistance and commend Classie on her dedication.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"You can do what you want to do ... God will give you the strength honey." -- Classie
Classie still insists on preparing food herself. She cooks greens everyday and bakes sweet potato pies and peach cobbler. At 104, she is frail and her hearing is poor, but her mind is sharp. After their husbands died and Rozzie became ill, Classie moved from Baltimore to live in her sister's D.C. home.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"My mother used to say that's all right, when you get old you'll find out. So, I found out a whole lot of things since I got old." -- Classie
Classie promised years ago that as long as God gave her strength, she would take care of her family until their last breath. She did just that for her sister Rozzie, her brother, Ira Barber, and for her own mother. An award honoring her role as caregiver is proudly displayed in her home. "I'm doing good to be an old lady," she says.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"When the Lord get ready for her I hope we're together. I want to be right with her till the end. Oh Lordy ... That's all I got." -- Classie
Classie is weary from the demands of caring for Rozzie. Classie's brother, for whom she also cared, died in the hospital; she has vowed to let Rozzie live out her last days at home.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"We didn't come to stay honey. I know that, but it's my last sister." -- Classie
Classie gently touches Rozzie's hand. "We are reminded, or we now know, there is no greater love than the family Aunt Classie has shown for her sister," says their niece, Gloria Henderson.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Yeah, they love each other. Very, very. She takes good care of her sister." -- Marilyn Daniel, home-care aide
Marilyn Daniel, 63, works six days a week for Home Care Partners. She has helped care for Rozzie Laney for the past 10 years. Here, Marilyn checks Rozzie's forehead for a fever as Classie watches, concerned.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Classie's big baby ... that baby going to give me a smile this morning?" -- Classie
Classie playfully touches Rozzie's nose. "We just used to have a good time together. She would tell me things she wouldn't tell nobody else. Things she would do I wouldn't tell nobody," Classie says.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"We would go to the Elks home every Friday night, catch new boyfriends!" -- Classie
Classie Morant, left, with her sister, Rozzie Laney, in an undated family photograph.
Courtesy Family
"We would have a ball ... She could dance, honey!" -- Classie
Rozzie Laney crosses her legs as she is propped up on a pillow for breakfast. An old space heater keeps the house warm.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I love you, too, Classie. Everything going to be all right." -- Marilyn Daniel, home-care aide
Marilyn Daniel tries to cheer up Classie, who is worried about Rozzie's condition.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Have mercy on her lord. Bring her back home." -- Classie
Classie sits surrounded by old photographs at the doorway of her home in Northwest Washington as she waits for her sister to return. Rozzie had been at the hospital after falling ill with pneumonia. Classie waited in a chair in the foyer for hours.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Her time's getting short. She might not last too long but she would be here with me." -- Classie
Rozzie is returned home from the hospital after falling ill with pneumonia. Doctors arranged for hospice care to assist Classie during their remaining time together.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Yeah, she'll be in her own bed." -- Classie
Paramedics Ken Otte and John Calatagud carry Rozzie back to bed after her trip to the hospital.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"No greater love." -- Gloria Henderson, niece
Classie whispers words of farewell to Rozzie as she realizes their time together is coming to an end. "You can go to sleep now," she says gently. She stood at Rozzie's bedside for a long time, laying her head on her sister's pillow.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
![<i>We had some sweet days together. I thank god for knowing that she was my sister. A good sister." -- Classie</i>
<br><br>
Classie checks on her sister Rozzie. "Classie always felt that [Rozzie] needed looking after and that's been, I guess, her lifetime duty," says her nephew Everett Barber.](http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/090506/GAL-09May06-1989/media/PHO-09May06-160895.jpg)
We had some sweet days together. I thank god for knowing that she was my sister. A good sister." -- Classie
Classie checks on her sister Rozzie. "Classie always felt that [Rozzie] needed looking after and that's been, I guess, her lifetime duty," says her nephew Everett Barber.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Rozzie is the youngest and Classie is the oldest. So that's been a relationship since childhood where Classie looked after her younger sister and she continues to do that." -- Everett Barber, nephew
A weary Classie lays her head down on the dining room table. Caregiver Marilyn Daniel usually braids her silver hair.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She's gone. She's gone. Oh, Lordy, and that was all I had." -- Classie
Classie weeps as hospice workers prepare her sister's body for transport to the funeral parlor. Carla Brooks, rear, a registered nurse with Community Hospices, helped comfort Classie.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Roz is in heaven ... You took care of her, she's going to take care of you." -- Marilyn Daniel, home-care aide
Marilyn Daniel comforts Classie the morning after Rozzie's death.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I'm sorry your heart is hurting ... And you were such a good caregiver. What a wonderful big sister you are." -- Carla Brooks, hospice nurse
Classie weeps as hospice nurses prepare her sister's body for transport to the funeral parlor.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"The Lord knows, I know he knows and he will take care of me." -- Classie
A weary Classie sits in the pink-wallpapered room she shared with Rozzie.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She's gone to heaven honey. She won't be sick no more." -- Thelma Mobley, home-care aide
The director of the Horton Funeral Home helps the family make arrangements for Rozzie's burial.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She looked so sweet, so pretty. Like she staying there sleeping." -- Classie
Classie visits the funeral parlor the evening before Rozzie's service to spend some final moments alone with her sister. Her relatives supported her as she crumpled with grief upon seeing the body.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"You feel bad Classie? Come on lean on me." -- Marilyn Daniel, home-care aide
Marilyn Daniel helps dress Classie for Rozzie's funeral.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Her strength and her persistence in her care was just very admirable and it just gives me hope. There is hope for all of us in the future that we all have ones to lean on when we all might need something." -- Marlene Barber, nephew's wife
Home-care aide Marilyn Daniel says a prayer with Classie's family members at her home as they leave for Rozzie's funeral. From left to right: Lee Henderson, Marlene Barber, Marilyn Daniel, Classie Morant and Gloria Henderson.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
Yesterday I couldn't lay my head on her chest anymore." -- Classie
Classie gets help from home-care aide Marilyn Daniel and family members as they leave for Rozzie's funeral.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Have you ever seen a hundred-year-old person come over and take care of a sister and brother. Come on now, you got to give credit where credit is due. Even in her old age, in her sickness, she made sure that brother and sister was taken care of." -- Rev. George Anderson
Though she usually avoids funerals, home-care aide Marilyn Daniel, left, accompanies Classie to Rozzie's service.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I don't have any more tears ... Lord have mercy Jesus. That's all I had." --Classie
Rozzie Laney is laid to rest at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Md. Classie watched the ceremony from the limo, unable to climb the hill to her sister's gravesite.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"The Lord saw she had suffered enough so he let her rest." -- Classie
Family members release doves as Rozzie Laney is laid to rest.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"We know that death is a part of our life. We didn't come here to stay. But it's hard, very hard when it does come. But God does not make mistakes. We love Aunt Classie and God bless her for what she's done." -- Gloria Henderson
Relatives attend funeral services with Classie. Her niece Gloria Henderson comforts her as nephew Everett Barber holds flowers from the gravesite.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"We just look up to her and just know that she sets an example for all of us to live by." -- Marlene Barber, nephew's wife
Classie Morant, reflected in the mirror, talks with family and friends during the repast at her home.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I think about her so. I looked at her picture the other day." -- Classie
Janice Sullivan, right, with son Chas and husband Charles, share memories with Classie.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
![<i>"Her strength was Aunt Rozzie. She wanted to take care of her sister." -- Gloria Henderson, niece</i>
<br><br>
Classie's niece Gloria Henderson visits from her home in southern Virginia to assist Classie with her needs. "[Rozzie] was ready to go. She appreciated everything you did and she wanted to give you a little bit of rest," Gloria tells Classie. "And she thought she was leaving you well in the hands of others, which she did. She's happy now. And she wants you to be happy, too."](http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/090506/GAL-09May06-1989/media/PHO-09May06-160912.jpg)
"Her strength was Aunt Rozzie. She wanted to take care of her sister." -- Gloria Henderson, niece
Classie's niece Gloria Henderson visits from her home in southern Virginia to assist Classie with her needs. "[Rozzie] was ready to go. She appreciated everything you did and she wanted to give you a little bit of rest," Gloria tells Classie. "And she thought she was leaving you well in the hands of others, which she did. She's happy now. And she wants you to be happy, too."
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Nobody but me now Lord." -- Classie
Classie looks at her reflection in a mirror a few days after Rozzie's funeral.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"The Lord knows...and he will take care of me." -- Classie
Classie curls up on Rozzie's bed and sleeps there to feel closer to her departed sister. "God has given me a good life. Lived a long time. But when I go, I hope I go like Roz. Just go on to sleep," Classie says.
Carol Guzy-Carol Guzy/Washington Post
Gallery Credits:
Producer Whitney Shefte
Photographer, Audio Reporter, Text Editor Carol Guzy
Photo Editor, Audio Editor Whitney Shefte, Carol Guzy
Text Editor Amanda McGrath
Sweet Dreams