Patrick Sun, a photographer, was walking home from work when he spotted an elderly couple in a park in central London.
They were walking in the sun, with the curtains drawn.
“I started snapping pictures,” he says.
“The woman was holding her daughter, and I said, ‘That’s it.
I’m leaving.'”
But the couple were still in the shade, so he decided to get them a bit of a break from the sun.
“They were still holding their daughter and they were walking towards the beach,” he tells Polygon.
“So I decided to put the camera away and get back to my work.
I’d done that before, and it was fine.”
After walking for a bit, he realised the couple hadn’t seen him.
“And I was like, ‘Well, that’s it,’ and walked back towards the car,” he explains.
“But the next day I woke up and said to myself, ‘Oh my god, I’ve forgotten about this, I forgot about this.
What is going on?'”
That’s when he realised what was happening to the couple.
“When I got home I was really pissed off,” he remembers.
“Because they had to live on this island for the rest of their lives, so I’m really pissed about that.”
What happens if you leave your house and you leave behind the family you’ve left behind?
Read moreThe couple had lived in a small cottage on a remote island for decades, and had been planning to move there when Patrick arrived.
“This island is quite remote,” he recalls.
“It’s not easy to get to and from, and you have to take a ferry.”
So the couple, who are both 75 years old, decided to move to a different island for a while.
“That was actually when I realised I had forgotten about it,” Patrick says.
When he returned to the house, he discovered the couple had just moved.
“My wife was in the bath and I was taking photos of her,” he said.
“She said, “Well, what’s going on?
“And I said to her, “It doesn’t matter what I do, I just leave.
“Sometimes it’s really sad, and sometimes you feel sorry for them.” “
One of the reasons I started photographing people is because it’s not a good feeling when you see them, when you hear them,” he explained.
“Sometimes it’s really sad, and sometimes you feel sorry for them.”
And so did his family.
“You’re not in a state of grief,” he told Polygon over Skype.
“If I were to do it all over again, I would probably be more devastated.”
Patrick was able to keep the couple in the same spot for the next two years, and now they’re happily reunited.
He says he was shocked to discover they still remembered the experience of leaving home.
“To see that in a photo, that you still felt it,” he added.
“Just the way that the people feel it.”
Patrick hopes the couple’s story inspires others to take the time to remember their family, and get on with their lives.
“There’s not much you can do, so you have a choice.””
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There’s not much you can do, so you have a choice.”