You Will Never Take My Memories From Me

This morning after waking up from a quick overnight sleep at a hotel at the halfway point in our return home from vacation, we were shocked and saddened to find that our van window was shattered and we had been robbed of all our belongings that we had left in there....which was pretty much everything one needs for a seven day vacation times four adults and two kids!...all our favorite clothes, favorite shoes, fun electronic things to keep the kiddos occupied on a long trip like DVD player, leapster, etc...all the chargers, gps, everything... Gone.

I would have gladly donated a week's worth of clothes to a family (in fact I pretty much did when decluttering the closet this spring) and would have given toys, electronics, and stuffed animals to those less fortunate at Christmas time. But to have someone violate, damage, and trash our vehicle while looking for our "treasure" pains me. I am too naive to truly believe there are people in this world that would do something so low. But I guess it's true.

Thankfully no one was hurt, and thankfully I practically sleep with my camera, phone, and laptop within arms reach. As saddened as I am that we lost some of our favorite things, I would have literally been SICK had I lost the photos I had just taken from the past week or my equipment. I am so grateful to still have all of that intact, and will share highlights soon.

No matter what we will still have the memories of the fun we had at the beach, pool, pirate adventure, dolphin cruise, and alligator alley.

A thief would pretty much have to drag me along kicking and screaming behind my camera bag to ever be able to take those from me.

To the crooks that now have our stuff, may you be clothed in nice warm clothes, walk in perfectly comfy shoes, be entertained by fun games and have the batteries forever charged in all your electronics...but may you also be haunted forever by this sucky crime you just committed. :( I will sleep tonight knowing I still have photographic memories of a wonderful vacation, I hope you don't sleep for weeks.

Touched by an Angel

 

I was touched this morning to find this little gem in my Facebook inbox. Reading it sent goosebumps through my entire body and tears down my face. This particular story is one that I will carry with me forever and solidifies yet again that THIS is why I do what I do. The fact that this mom had no idea who I was, we never even crossed paths, but for her to go through the trouble of tracking me down JUST so she could say these kind words warms my heart. I just had to share.

"Well, I had heard you had a page on Facebook but it has taken me some time to find you and the strength to write this email. I know that you probably don't know me, but I am sure you remember my son. On June 5, I gave birth to my stillborn son, and you were generous enough to take his photos. This time had been heartbreaking for my husband and I, but we are slowly getting through it. I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for us that day. Words will never be able to describe how grateful we are for the work you did. I have not seen the pictures yet, but I am working with a therapist to see them soon. He viewed them and said they are beautiful. The only chance I will ever be able to see my son is through your photos and I will forever cherish the work that you did.
I hope that one day we can meet you under happier circumstances."- THE MOM

As difficult as it was for me to take those photos, it was nothing compared to how hard it was for them to lose a child. It was the least I could do for them to be brave and give them a beautiful memento of their tiny angel. I am reminded daily that I am living, breathing, doing the absolute right career. Giving people memories to last a lifetime through the art of my photos. The photos I took of that one pound little angel will be treasured forever by that family and I'm privileged to be a part of such a private moment of their lives even though it was a sad one. :(

I asked her permission to share and here was her response:

"I would absolutely love for you to use our comment because your work meant so much to us. It is up to you if you delete our name or baby's name. We feel honored to talk about our son and thank the people that helped us, it is what is getting us through each day. We had a friend that also delivered a stillborn son and her biggest regret is that she has no photos of him. People don't realize how important pictures are until they don't have them and you can never turn back time to get them. We had a short amount of time with our son and we had to make very difficult decisions during that time that I was in complete shock. I knew that I didn't get to thank people that were a huge part of a very powerful moment in our life. We would love to meet you and would be honored to have you take pictures of our family in the future. Knowing we lost our son to an umbilical cord accident and it had nothing to do with my health, we will try again to have children because we can't imagine not giving "baby's name" a sibling."