Cancer.
That bastard C-Word that haunts so many people on earth. I remember when I was a child and first started to wrap my mind around what Cancer was when my paternal grandmother died when I was around 8 years old. I didn’t have much in the way of understanding what it actually was but I knew that it made people sad and consequently people died from it.
A few weeks ago I found out that one of my best friends from Calgary’s Mom has Cancer. The shitty kind that you can’t fix and will kill her – likely in a matter of the next few months. This came about very quickly and there has been little time to process let alone come to terms with the fact that one of the most important people to me when we were teenagers is going to die soon.
Let that sink in – imagine you are in my shoes. More importantly imaging you are in the shoes of the family OR the patient spending their final days managing the grief they feel knowing that every day could be their last.
If you have been touched by cancer – personally or not – you know that it takes everyone hostage. It isn’t enough that it is fighting to take the life of the person who is hosting it, but it drags the rest of the family and friends through the dying process as well. It is ruthless. It is careless. It is cruel.
These are the stories that I hear a lot of the time as a family photographer. You don’t need to have or know someone you love with Cancer to realize how fragile life is and how precious our time on earth is with our loved ones. A neighbor of mine in Red Deer years ago nearly lost her daughter to a fairly serious car accident on a major highway in Alberta and called me the next day to share the story and also to tell me about how she didn’t have any recent pictures of her – a thought she had knowing her daughter could have died.
The thing with death is that it is final. There is no more time after you die – regardless of your faith, your hopes and your dreams. Once you are gone, the people left behind are left to remember and celebrate the moments they remember. There are no more opportunities to see that person, chat with them and tell them that you love them. This is where family photography is so important.
Family Photography as a legacy.
I grew up in Calgary, AB and to be honest I grew up in the 80’s and my parents took an adequate amount of images over my lifetime as an only child for me to have really a handful of images considering I lived at home until my early 20’s finishing University. Now – on the other side of the spectrum and the handiness of cell phone cameras, I have thousands and thousands of pictures of my four children and my husband – and thanks to the selfie – even some of me! This is overkill – thought I just can’t help it. When you have four children the opportunity to capture a moment happens fairly often. What is my motivation though?
Family Photography is such an important aspect of life. This image at the top of the post is all three of my triplets holding hands together. It took me about 10 seconds to get together and shoot and about 20 minutes to edit. The memory however and meaning of this image will last lifetimes – not just mine. It was fast, simple and only cost me a few chocolate eggs (how I pay my kids for their photography time) but what does this image symbolize? What will it mean one day when I am gone? What will it mean even as they grow into children, teens and adults?
Tomorrow May Never Come
Don’t wait forever to take those pictures or get those pictures taken – formal or not because life can change in an instant and things may never go back to how great they were today. Every day you are a little older – hopefully a little wiser, but also a day closer to the end. I am also not trying to sound morbid but the life you live – in Red Deer or in Calgary or any place between may change drastically tomorrow and the images you have up to today will be the ones that your family and loved ones will remember you by forever. The family photography images will be the ones they cherish next their hearts for a whole lifetime.
Don’t wait a minute longer to book that family photography session. Family photography is one of the few things you will invest in that will only grow in value to a priceless amount.
Suzie
XO
suzannetaylorphotography.com
hello@suzannetaylorphotography.com
