A very special ADITL with Mary H. - 2 chapters

As I am writing this, I am trying to find the right words to sort through my feelings and put them in black and white, on this page.

An idea comes to me.

Traveling to France 10 years ago, my daughter fell very sick while in France. We took her to the hospital and I stayed with her for several days as I was the only fluent speaker at the time. My daughter was 1 at the time… I always say that there is a difference between fathering a child and becoming a dad… that day I truly became Nyla’s dad because I would have done anything to see her healthy. I was worried sick. My daughter got her health back within 3 days but it was a scary time.

But, what do you do when the scare becomes a nightmare? And what do you do with that grief?

Some people bottle it up and never speak of it again; some talk about it, celebrate it… but that’s the thing with grief: it’s a very personal experience with which we all deal differently. Mary and Brock were celebrating the life of their little girl every year but now had decided to commemorate the short life of their little girl come and gone too soon and to share in the joy of the new chapter opening in their life… they were expecting again.

This is that photoshoot…

Chapter 1: Of Grief and expectations

We made the decision at the earliest stages that we would split the photoshoot into 2 sessions in order to tell a better story. For consistency, I used the same 1 lens only for both shoots.

I think we did good. I’m very proud to have been entrusted this story.

Chapter 2: The arrival