Abandonment Issues: Mr. & Mrs. Wickman

The old wood stove hasn't brought warmth to this abode since Mr. Edward (Ed) Elmer Wickman passed away in July of 2004, at the age of 80. His wife Mrs. Margaret (Lois) Wickman had passed away back in January of 2001. Ed had a very large family that included 23 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and 4 great-great-grandchildren. Even with the large family though, the loss of his wife was heartbreaking. I can only barely begin to imagine how lonely those last three and a half years must have been.





On this day in April of 2011, the doors could barely hold themselves up on their aged hinges, and the yellow curtains on the windows were disintegrating. In the kitchen, my hands pushed aside a bright curtain and revealed the staircase to the second floor. Red and gold wallpaper adorned the staircase. A fuzzy green blanket with silk trim was hanging at the window high above a bright blue banister constructed of 2x4s. The banister gave way to striped wallpaper, peeling to old orange painted drywall crumbling to outer brick wall.

The Killer Bees


The Ultimate Warrior


Paul Mr. Wonderful Orndorff


Bret The Hitman Hart


Andre The Giant


Ric Flair


George The Animal Steele


Brutus The Barber Beefcake


Mr. Perfect


Honky Tonk Man


Kamala


Kicking the baseball between my feet on the second floor, photographing the baby blue Westinghouse Nail Dryer and Hair Dryer all-in-one with fat ass vacuum hose and colour matched case, I pondered how long it had been since some kids threw this ball around, and who those kids may have become? What became of the girls that used this baby blue Westinghouse equipment? These are the questions that push me forward as an explorer.

The Nasty Boys


Greg The Hammer Valentine


The Fabulous Moolah


Elizabeth


The Model Rick Martel


Time ravages. Time seems to go faster everyday with the ratio of tomorrows to yesterdays shrinking at a feverish pace. Much like is happening to us in these fading moments we try to to capture in photographs and memories, time eventually had its way with this old house in Hastings, Ontario.

Heaps of wallpaper have surrendered, given up on life and leaped to the ground, left piled in mass graves. Colour was the only thing still showing signs of life inside the house on this spring afternoon. The blue and yellow kitchen walls shining brighter than the cold distant sun, hiding behind a dark shield of clouds and dense precipitation in a foreboding black and grey sky. The curtains and the wallpaper, the pile of clothing and the bright blue banister, all alive with colour. Us, alive with passionate excitement and intrigue. The freshly wounded corpse of a wet dog that I couldn't seem to muster the strength to photograph, beside a rotting wood pile out back, remind us of just how short lived and precious this alive feeling really is. Nothing lasts.

Ev e ryt h in g f a ll s a pa ar t .

We too, will abandoned these shells, these skeletons, these houses...

The Fridge


Macho Man Randy Savage


Hacksaw Jim Duggan


The Matador Tito Santana


The $Million $Dollar $Man Ted DiBiase


The British Bulldogs


Jake the Snake


Hillbilly Jim


Ravishing Rick Rude


Demolition


One Man Gang


Ricky the Dragon Steamboat


Legion of Doom


The time will come for each and every one of us. Until it does, live life to the fullest.

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