I’ve been photographing weddings for roughly 15 years now, and one thing I’ve said over and over again is how important photos are for remembering the ones we love. There have been several times throughout the years that a photo I took was the last photo of someone. Anytime I’d hear that, I’d feel sad but also proud of what I do.
Unfortunately, I am not the one on the side of loss. My grandmother passed away on Sunday, and myself and my family are having to deal with it. It all seemed to happen pretty quickly. We knew she wasn’t doing well and was getting old, but it was still a bit of a shock.
She went into the hospital about a week ago. A good amount of the time she was awake and talking to everyone, but I could tell it was a struggle and her mind wasn’t fulling connecting things. The doctors told us the tests weren’t looking good. From what I heard her kidneys weren’t fulling functioning. Besides that, I don’t know what was wrong with her.
On Friday, they moved her into hospice care. I guess there was nothing else that could be done. I was at a wedding on Saturday, so I couldn’t get in to see her until Sunday. At that point, she really only slept and was struggling breathing. That night, my mother sent me a text telling me she had passed.
I don’t like being a sad person, but I feel like sharing all of this is important. As we have gone through all of this, it has shown me again how important photos are. While my Grandmother was awake, she only asked for one thing to be brought to the hospital: family photos. Now, as we all try to remember my grandmother, we go back to photos that we have of her to help us remember.
I’ve been able to find several on my phone, and I know I have the family portraits I took for her 90th birthday, but that doesn’t seem like enough. I’m sure we will find more eventually, but I wish I had taken more and been more organized with the ones we did take.
All of this is a part of life, and I know I’ll be dealing with it more in the future. My hope is that from now on I’ll have an even stronger belief in what I do, and that I will also make sure to record as many of my own memories as I can.