Legacy

I’d like to introduce you to my grandmother. She was my last living grandparent until Thanksgiving Day 2016. This was a bittersweet time to lose a loved one- so grateful for her 90+ years on earth yet feeling such a deep sense of loss on a day for celebrating family.

My grandma HATED having her photo taken. This sweet lady literally did an about-face every time she saw me grab my camera. She’d have nothing to do with it or with me until the camera was stashed back in its bag. That is, until the summer of 2015 when we were visiting during our summer road trip to Montana. She quietly pulled me aside and told me she wanted me to take her picture. She said she wanted it for her obituary. I’ve never been so honored….and so reluctant…. to have someone in front of my camera before this moment. I quietly grabbed my camera and a reflector, and we went to her bedroom. I sat her down in a chair in the corner of her room and took a handful of images. She didn’t want more than that, and it’s all her tolerance would allow. The weight of the moment and gravity of this request filled the space between us. It was a moment, a feeling, I will never forget.

This image is the one she chose. She felt it captured her, and I couldn’t agree more. Her smile, her strength, her patience, her love of her family and friends- you see it all in this image. I am proud of this photo and I am honored to have been trusted to capture it. Whenever I doubt why I do what I do, I remember this photo, this moment, this request. I was happy to be able to do this for her, and I was also happy to be able to provide this image for her family and legacy.

Before leaving my grandmother’s bedroom that day after taking her photo, I quickly captured this image of her dresser. I wanted to remember everything just as it was, including the image she had framed of her husband, my grandfather. I had taken that image of him many years prior, on a whim. Thank goodness I did, it obviously meant a lot to not only me, but to grandma as well.