""Nobody but me now Lord."-Classie Morant
Clarice "Classie" Morant, 104 years old, displayed a poignantly tender unconditional devotion for her sister Rozzie Laney. She had been caregiver for the bedridden 92-year-old victim of Alzheimers for many years.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"My mama 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 Morant, 104, combs her silvery hair. She remained independent for over a century, but after her sister Rozzie passed, she seemed to lose her purpose and her health began to decline.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"She told me that night she was going to lay in her baby's bed. And she said that Roz and Ira would take care of her." -Shirley Bell, cousin
Classie lies on the same flowered sheets her sister Rozzie used. In a profoundly poignant circle of life, she curled up in Rozzie's bed to feel closer to her departed sibling on the evening of her passing. It was as if Classie simply took her sister's place in the universe.
Carol Guzy-/The Washington Post
"Hominy grits and butter and I'll be satisfied." -Classie
Classie still insisted on preparing food herself. She cooked greens every day and baked sweet potato pies and peach cobbler. At 104, she is frail and her hearing is poor, but her mind is tack sharp. "She's a strong little cookie," says niece Janice Sullivan.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"I go in the kitchen at night, I don't know how to feel. Feel like I'm all alone." -Classie
Classie makes her famous peach cobbler in preparation for her sister's funeral. Family and friends came to the house afterward for the repast. As medical staff predicted, her health began to fail soon after Roz left her.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"She don't want to be a burden to anybody. They were young once, we all get old. I hope I have someone to take care of me." -Marilyn Daniel
Marilyn Daniel would braid her silvery hair as they reminisced about old times -- fishing, dancing and catching boyfriends with Roz.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"All my friends died. All of them." -Classie
The constants in her life were her caregivers, Classie's angels in practical shoes. They walked with her every day through the valley of the shadow of death and didn't flinch.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"You will get well. You got to celebrate your 105 birthday. We going to have a big party."-Marilyn Daniel
Marilyn Daniel works for Home Care Partners providing assistance to elderly clients which allows them to remain in their homes. She embraces Classie, who is in mourning for her sister.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"Yes sir, Roz and Ira they're together. I miss both of them." -Classie
An old family photo of siblings Classie Morant, Ira Barber and Rozzie Laney which was part of Rozzie's funeral board of memories.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"I would give you anything if you could just make me well." -Classie
Ann White, sister of a goddaughter, left her own life in Baltimore so could temporarily live at the D.C. row house and tend to Classie's needs. Medical insurance would only offer the option of a day nurse so White's ability to take night duty, was the essential link in keeping Classie in her home as she wished.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Our little shining star. Everybody talk about how you used to dress honey. Wear them nice big hats. Put on those beautiful suits and strut your stuff. Even church folks get jealous." -Gloria Henderson
Gloria and her husband Lee visit Aunt Classie frequently from their home in Virginia to take care of household needs and offer the thing Classie loves most -- the embrace of family.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"Yes sir, heads would turn, wouldn't they honey? Heads would turn!" -Gloria Henderson
Classie in an old family photograph. Caregiver Ann White says "Sassy Classie! You're one stubborn tiny woman!" She had an active life and according to the hospice chaplain, she will live on in the stories her family will tell.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"When she is dressed, she is dressed from head to toe. And I understand that's how she received her nickname as Classie."-Shirley Bell
"I have to wear diapers now, like a baby," laughs Classie, with resignation. She was a feisty little 104-year-old dynamo and a spiffy dresser which led to her nickname. "Gonna walk down the aisle on Mother's Day. Pick out something to wear," said Classie. But she never made it.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Classie Boo! You look sexy! I have to get a boyfriend for you!" -Marilyn Daniel
"A boyfriend today?" asked Classie. Ms. Daniel has served for over a decade, first caring for her sister Rozzie and now Classie. "My big baby," says Marilyn tenderly. "I love you Classie."
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Oh they so beautiful, so pretty ... Yes, feel all right this morning. Thank the Lord I'm here."-Classie
Classie receives Mother's Day flowers from relatives. She cherished family above all else. When her niece Janice Sullivan came to visit and realized the time was coming near, a tear rolled slowly down her cheek.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"How can you not fall in love with a little lady like this."-Gary Shaw
Gary Shaw, a doctor of physical therapy, helps Classie do exercises. "Can you kick that leg up for me? Five thousand times!" he laughs. She shamelessly flirts with Shaw and other men who come her way.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"One, two. We'll do it together, like the Rockettes!"- Gary Shaw
"Aging in place: it's a wonderful thing! We're heading back towards old-fashioned values I think in some cases. Taking care of your parents is a lot more rewarding than people realize," Shaw says.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"It could be sort of like a New Orleans approach, you know? Celebrate the life and not the passing."- Gary Shaw
"Don't be afraid to talk to the elderly ... They don't want to be alone," Shaw says.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Death is a natural part of life and a lot of people are afraid."-Gary Shaw
Shaw helps Classie walk. "Most of the time when you've got someone who is 100 years old, they know what's going on and sometimes all they want to do is have somebody listen to them," he notes.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"You know I don't have men on my mind." -Classie
Classie would still flirt with men who came to the house. "She remember men. M-E-N. She love the men all right," laughed caregiver Thelma Mobley. "He smiles and talks, yeah he likes that. Yeah, we smile at each other," says Classie about her physical therapist. "I'm doing good to be an old lady."
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"One of the jobs of home care is when someone is near the end of their time on Earth to help people pass away very comfortably at home, with comfort care, with family surrounding them, versus being in a nursing home, versus being in a hospital where the care is not going to be as intimate ...That's very important for a lot of people to make that transitions so much more smoother and easier."-Gary Shaw
Shaw takes Classie's vital signs.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I think about her so. I looked at her picture the other day. We had some sweet days together." -Classie
Classie's home was like a museum, lined with old photographs in every corner. A framed photo of her final moments with her sister Rozzie before she passed away last New Year's Eve, was given as a Mother's Day gift by Washington Post photographer Carol Guzy as Classie's health was failing.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Have mercy on me Jesus" -Classie
Classie weeps, "I feel so bad every day ... I'm weak. Let me walk again please Lord." She sits on her departed sister Rozzie's bed after returning from a hospital visit.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"The first line to this poem (by Emily Dickenson) immediately jumped into my head: "Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me." -Hospice Rev. Robbie Wellington
"Ms. Morant just seems to be the kind of person who would just keep going on forever," Rev. Wellington says.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"Yeah, I thank them for carrying me. People have to carry me around now wherever I go. Pick me up and carry me around." -Classie
Caregivers Ann White and Marilyn Daniel help Classie out to the porch which she loved. Even as she was dying, her concern was for the welfare of those taking care of her.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"Sun shining, birds twirping, you shining ... One day we got that is promised to us and that is this day the lord has made. Let us rejoice."-Ann White
In the end, it was the little things that gave her the most pleasure. Sitting on her porch watching the birds, a bowl of grits, one of Ann's jokes, the embrace of a loved one
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"It's nice out here. I see the birds and the bees and the butterflies...I used to feed the birds but can't anymore." -Classie
Classie spoke wistfully about her losses. With spring, came renewal. Mourning doves built a nest on the porch as a life inside ebbed.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Thank the Lord for the day. Ain't going to be like this all the time. I'll be gone."-Classie
Classie sits on her back porch listening to the sounds of life.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"I'm ready to go."-Classie
Classie sits by a sign with her nickname, in her living room surrounded by photographs and keepsakes. "When her time come Roz will be right here with her. Her guardian angel. She's watching over her," says caregiver Thelma Mobley.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"After the sister she had nobody to take care of no more. Now she just let go I think." -Marilyn Daniel
In an image of deja vu, Classie takes the place of Roz in bed as Marilyn Daniel prepares her meal, same as she did for her sister.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"Roz is in heaven. Okay? She's in heaven. She going to take care of you. You take care of her, she's going to take care of you."-Marilyn Daniel
"I don't have any more tears ... She didn't get to see the New Year. The Lord's given her peace," wept Classie.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"You feel bad Classie? Come on lean on me." -Marilyn Daniel
Daniel feels for fever as Classie complains about being so very sick. "She used to bounce back, you know? But to me like things getting worse. And then as Roz pass she still worse because she not doing anything. She used to get up and walk and change her... but now she not doing anything and she is getting weak," Daniel notes.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"She's happy to be going home. And there's no place like home."-EMT
Classie is transported home after a stay in the hospital before eventually requiring hospice care for her declining health issues.
Carol Guzy-/Washington Post
"Good to be home."-Classie
Classie left her home in Baltimore years ago to care for her sister Rozzie in the D.C. rowhouse. "And this is the home she knows," says cousin Shirley Bell.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"Yes, honey. Oh you talking about being glad to be home! I'm glad to home. Out of that hospital. Oh they just taking all of my blood from me ... and I just can't get my blood back."-Classie
Classie laughs with glee and thanks EMT's as they return her home from the hospital. Her greatest fear was that Rozzie would pass in the hospital like her brother did, which broke her heart. Having Roz die in her own bed provided solace for Classie.
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"No one knows. We only have this day."-Ann White
Classie returns home from her last hospital visit before beginning hospice care. Balloons saying "God Bless You" were sent to her in the hospital. "My feet and my hands are so cold. They stay cold," says Classie
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Her vitals are good, but her heart is failing." -Ann White
Ann exclaims, "Thank you Jesus!" as a hospice nurse reports Classie's blood pressure is good. "You gonna be here when I get back," she tells Classie.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Please, Roz! Have mercy on me Lord." - Classie.
She had episodes of agitation and grief for the loss of her sister that sometimes lasted for hours and she would repeat a phrase over and over.
Carol Guzy-Carol Guzy/The Washington Post
"Nobody can understand that unless you go through it."-Gloria Henderson
Gloria speaks about the toll taken on caregivers. "I've gone through it the longest of anyone, like coming home and being with them. Then all of a sudden I saw myself getting old. That I can't walk and I can't treat them like these ladies can do to help her -- like the caregivers -- they do a much better job than I could ever do right now. "
Carol Guzy-Carol Guzy/Washington Post
"She used to call Roz the big baby. Now she?s the baby ... That baby gonna be okay. We love you, hear? Sure."-Thelma Mobley, caregiver
Caring for the caregiver is no easy task. There were cantankerous moments for the woman used to doing the "giving" not the "taking."
Carol Guzy-Carol Guzy/Washington Post
"I think that's why she goes to the door a lot ... because she saw Roz. She's looking for Roz."-Shirley Bell
Cousin Shirley Bell helps Classie to the back door. She thinks of her as an inspiration.
Carol Guzy-Carol Guzy/Washington Post
"She got up and look at the door and said, 'That's Roz!' Well, I said 'Okay,' but she can't take you yet." -Ann White
Classie felt the need to look out the back door ever since she saw Roz there. The hospice chaplain explained: "One of her aides was saying how she is talking about people, I think maybe even her sister, who have already passed. But she claims to see them, to be having conversations with them. And for all we know, they could be calling her to the other side, to that place of rest and peace."
Carol Guzy-Washington Post
"That was her reason for the struggle. She said she promised the Lord if he gave her the strength to take care of Aunt Rozzie she would do it. And I think after aunt Rozzie, she was hanging onto that thread. Now she's giving up now. That was her baby."-Gloria Henderson
Classie started sleeping in her sister Rozzie's bed after she passed. Her niece Gloria Henderson gives her a kiss as she arrives back home from the hospital.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Just sit here and hold my hand honey ... I don't like to be by myself." -Classie
"Heaven is there. God is waiting for you," says niece Gloria Henderson.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Dr. Lee. How's everything? My heart? I can't do nothing about my heart?"-Classie
Dr. Andrew J. Lee Jr. has been Classie's physician for many years. He made house calls on Sunday mornings to check on her condition when she became too debilitated to travel to her appointments.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She gave so much and asked for so little." -Shirley Bell
"Touch. It works. Just to hold them. You keep them near... It's similar to a baby," says cousin Shirley Bell who would visit and calm her.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She died strong."-Marilyn Daniel
She used to joke about wearing a diaper like a baby. But that's what happens, we go in reverse. Even her hair started turning from gray to black, as if regressing to childhood or washing away like a reverse watercolor.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She mourned so long for her brother. And her moaning like that. She's not hurting. Only her heart. I guess that's why she got in Roz's bed. Old people are so alone but everybody wants somebody." -Ann White
Classie began making peace with the fragility of her own mortality and the mystery of what lies beyond. She started making plans and sent Ann looking for pink outfit that Ann surmised was for her funeral.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She always took care of somebody one way or another. Now she just got somebody taking care of her. She?s not used to that at all." -Ann White
Caregivers frequently check her feet and hands for swelling. "Her feet like ice," says Marilyn Daniel. The fluids would build as a complication of her congestive heart failure and trying to keep her feet raised was no small task.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I said my goodbye to Classie that day."-Marilyn Daniel
Marilyn Daniel tries to feed Classie a few weeks before her death. She loved to eat and the caregivers knew the time was growing close when she no longer had interest in food.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She will be with Roz and Ira, that's all she looks forward to."-Shirley Bell
"Sleep like a baby, like an angel," said caregiver Thelma Mobley. In the room you could hear Classie whisper, "Please Roz. Have mercy on me Lord."
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"There is a shadow of death on her face," noticed Ann. 'She's giving up, a little more each day." -Ann White
Death is not like in the movies. It isn't pretty and doesn't always come fast or easy, but more like a slow withering.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"When I put my head on her chest it was like our hearts were beating together." -Gloria Henderson
Henderson sobs as she notices the stillness and realizes Classie had just passed away. She explained it was as if her spirit was still beating in her own heart. The last night of Classie's life she tenderly caressed Gloria's face, as if to imprint the image on her soul. A single tear rolled down Classie's cheek as she was thanking her for all she had done for them.
Henderson allowed this photo to be taken as a personal memory of her last moment with her beloved aunt, but later granted permission for it to be used to tell the story of Classie's life.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"Your work is done Miss Classie."-Thelma Mobley
Caregiver Thelma Mobley prays after learning Classie had just passed away. She spent over a decade caring for her sister Rozzie and now Classie.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She say 'I'm going to die in this bed just like Roz.' She was lucky she did."-Ann White
Classie Morant died exactly where she wanted to be, in the same bed where she had cared for her sister for so many years. It lies rumpled just after funeral home staff had taken away her body under a darkened sky filled with lightening bolts.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"I'll see Roz! Oh yes I will!" -Classie
For Classie's funeral, the family took Rozzie's program and simply scratched out her information replacing it with Classie's, as if she had taken her sister's place in the universe.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She said 'I won't be seeing you no more.' It filled me up." -Thelma Mobley
Caregiver Thelma Mobley carries a pink flower from the grave site ceremony at Cedar Hill Cemetery for her friend Miss Classie.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"We didn't come here to stay. When you sit in church at somebody else's funeral you sit there knowing that one day it's going to be yours." -Gloria Henderson
A cascade of pink flowers lies on Classie's grave as loved ones say a final farewell at Cedar Hill Cemetery. "Death is a part of life," said niece Gloria Henderson, as she begins the grief process of acceptance.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"It would be hard to imagine heaven alone." Hospice Rev. Robbie Wellington
Rev. Wellington noticed, "It just looked like she was dancing inside and that seemed to be reflective of her joyful, hopeful, loving and giving spirit it will live on in the memory of all those who love her. It will live on in the stories that they tell."
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
"She floated away like a dove ... Two beautiful doves coming to get her sister -- a beautiful sight. And they flew off together." -Thelma Mobley
Birds fly past the pink cascade of flowers on Classie's grave at Cedar Hill Cemetery as mourning doves sing their soulful song.
Carol Guzy-The Washington Post
Gallery Credits:
Producer Whitney Shefte
Photo Editor, Audio Editor Whitney Shefte, Carol Guzy
'No Greater Love'