My Mother's Day Story...

April 2021

I am often asked why I photograph families and children. So I am sharing a little of my story with you. This story goes to the heart of why photography, why family portraiture and why I love this.

The title "Looking Ahead - She Stands and Remembers" is really me sharing what I have learned through this story and why it's important for you to have these precious moments hanging on the walls of your home.

A long time ago, someone told me that: "No one has ever said from their death bed: 'I wish I would have worked more'."

With that in mind, I hope you enjoy this small piece of my story. -Cindie

This is my ONE family portrait, taken so very many years ago.

This is the reason I came up with the tag line:

"How will you remember?"

She came walking downstairs and turned into the living room, where she stopped abruptly, caught up in the sight of the portrait hanging on the wall. There she stopped and stared. They were so little there, how did it all pass by so fast, she wondered?

There in front of her was her little family from so many years before. She gasped as she looked at her babies on the wall, then two and four years old. They are both gone now and today, she just missed them.

She teared up when she looked at her husband and herself, so much younger and more beautiful than she remembered. I was beautiful, why didn’t I believe it? Why was I so hard on myself, she said to herself?

Day after day she passed by this portrait but today it made her stop and remember. It was sometime one March she clipped her coupons for this Photography Studio Session. She thought she would keep to her budget, but her husband went with her to the sales appointment as a surprise. When they saw the photographs, he insisted they buy this large canvas, she laughed out loud as she remembered they argued if they could afford it. After all, this was purchased in the days of film and it was so very expensive. He insisted! And he was right.

He came home one night with a big box all wrapped in a bow. As she opened it, unsure what it was, the three of them said: “Happy Mother’s Day!” And there it was-this beautiful 16x20" canvas...

She cried and laughed…and cried more, remembering the joy of the moment.

In that moment her memories of playing hide and seek, baking brownies and teaching her kids how to dance while they stood on her feet rushed back to her mind. Smiling, she remembered that even when they were teenagers, the three of them would crank up the music and dance all over the living room, together. She could still hear their laughter and their voices yelling from the back of the house: “Mom, where are you?” She laughs, she sighs again...remembering…

They are gone now, moved out of state and she was finding herself still periodically adapting to life without them close by. But something inside of her needed to remember this today.

Overcome with gratitude for her life, her long marriage and the little lives she had been given to steward, she reached over,  turning up the music to dance around the house. She celebrates her memories, and sings, to what an amazing life this is.