Last week, about mid week, I received a phone call from a non profit group that needed my photography services. This group, Wish of a Lifetime, spend their days making wishes for seniors come true. I didn't get all the details, but between email communications, phone calls and a little research, I put the back story together. The recipient was a French woman from Montreal, Canada. Her wish was to visit her elderly, ill brother in Lansing, MI. That's where I came in. They needed someone in the location to capture their meeting. I, luckily, was free to make this part of their wish come true.
After a few false starts (it's quite the process to organize multiple family members, in multiple countries, with one not speaking English, from the main office in Denver) we finally worked out the details.
I was to meet them in front of their chosen dining location.
The session was quick, only half an hour, but that was really all I needed to capture the joy this family had for each other. It had been 12 years, the anniversary of the brother and his now deceased wife's anniversary, since they had seen each other for any significant amount of time.
Although I was unable to verbally communicate with Antoinette, the recipient of the wish, because she only spoke French, she was able to express to me her joy and love through her eyes and touch.
What a blessing this job is.
When reviewing and editing one photograph caught me up. It was the two siblings sitting together and giving each other a look that can only be given by siblings. It struck me because I felt so thankful they had this moment, knowing in my heart I could never have a moment similar.
Despite being elderly, my hope for them is these photographs are cherished by Antoinette and her brother, and their children and their children's children.
