Magic Monday: Don’t Wait…

I’ve come nearly 30 years in my life before experiencing the death of a close family member.  A few hours ago (I’m writing this on Sunday) I found out that my Grandfather passed away today, completely unexpectedly.

Papa lived half a mile from my house growing up.  We’d usually see him once a day in passing as he came to feed his cows nearby, or worked in the alfalfa fields behind our home.  His laugh was contagious, and it was nearly impossible to be around him without joining in with his jovial spirit.  I miss him already.

Papa loved my photography, and would stop by my artists booth each week at the farmers market this summer to make the same comments about the same pictures 🙂

He approached me last fall about doing his “Senior Pictures”.  (think ‘true senior’ 🙂 ) He really wanted some nice pictures of himself and I remember being anxious to document who my grandfather was.  I wanted to take images with him and his cows, his tractor, with my Grandma, and truly record his interaction with the interests of his life.

I never did it.

Life was busy.

There was always tomorrow.

And now there is no tomorrow.

My deepest regret is I have no recent pictures.   No “senior pictures”, no family pictures,… Buzzy is nearly 1 year old now and we have no pictures of them together.  Papa lived 5 minutes away.  I even saw him fairly regularly.  And I have nothing recent to show of our relationship or our interaction.

Don’t put off documenting those close to you. Family, friends, important people in your life… It doesn’t have to be a professional or technically correct shot.  For when all is said and done, something is better than nothing.

Papa circa 1990s

Me and Papa circa 1996

Brooke Snow is a Lifestyle photographer in Cache Valley, Utah. She has a very bouncy 1 year old son and a zippy husband.  Date night currently consists of “smoothie and a movie” but that really means, smoothie plus the latest office episode, since 20 minutes is about all they can stay awake for now days.  Life is good.

Brooke teaches private photography lessons , online photography classes, as well as monthly photography classes in Logan, Utah.

Like this? Share it!

22 Responses

  1. I’m so sorry for your loss and I can imagine the regret you feel over never having taken those photos! Thank you for the reminder and hugs to you!

  2. I’m so sorry for your loss Brooke. Thank you for the reminder to make the time to take the pictures of the ones we love, we pitch the lesson so hard to our clients that we often take it for granted ourselves… Thinking of you today.

  3. Brooke, I am so so sorry about your loss, and I feel for your regret! But I do have to say how totally awesome it is that you got to have him around until you were almost 30! That is really so cool! I feel a little bit of the same sadness, because I have lost both my grandma’s and grandpa’s on both sides of my family already and I’m only 24. The one I was closest to was the first to go, and I was barely in high school when that happened! =( My husband never met him and it’s totally heartbreaking! It saddens me to know that if my husband and I ever have kids, they won’t know any of their great grandparents on my side of the family.

    Thank you for the reminder to take MANY more pictures and not put something off until tomorrow (over and over again)! And reminding me of the importance of documenting (with PICTURES!) even things that seem little in our lives!

    I’ll be thinking of you during this tough time!!!

  4. I can tell he had personality and was a great man just from those two images of him. I’m sorry for your loss. I wish my Grandparents lived near me. They are pretty far away and do not have much time left too.
    Thanks for the reminder.
    -Dana

  5. I can tell he was a fun grandpa! I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope you can feel his love this week with the funeral, and surrounded by lots of people that loved him too.

  6. Brooke I am so sorry for your loss. Losing a grandparent is hard. I am thinking about you and your family. Treasure all the wonderful memories and photos you DO have of your darling grandpa instead of letting regret get to you.

  7. So sorry for your loss Brooke. My Grandma passed away just before Christmas last year and I still miss her like crazy and always wish I would have made a little bit more of an effort to show her how much I love her. Wishing you peace this week! Loves.

  8. I am so sorry for your loss Brooke. Thank you for the reminder to take the time to document those we love. It is funny how easy it is to forget to do that.

  9. My mother in law has lived 2 houses down from you grandparents for the last 30+ years & she said his passing has been really hard for the neighborhood. She said he was the salt of the earth; no better man can be found. I thought you’d like to know.

  10. I am so sorry to hear about the passing of your grandfather. My mother was killed unexpectedly in an accident and the suddenness of the loss is enormous and confusing. God Bless.

  11. brooke, i’m so sorry about your grandpa and wishing you had more pictures. it’s really good of you to share and advise others to not waste the time. i wish i had more pictures of my mom before she got sick with cancer. now she has passed as well. the greatest blessing though was the prompting i got to do a surprise video for my family about her and her life. she passed away almost 2 months after i filmed it. i finished it after she died and showed it to family and relatives after her viewing. it was an incredible experience. no one knew about it and suddenly here she was on video, speaking to each of us in person, telling us what she loved about us. it’s remarkable. you can watch it here (http://www.shootmefilms.com/weblink-HD/movie.php?shootmefilm=Life%20Love%20and%20Happiness.flv), but fyi, it’s 30 minutes long. anyway, i would suggest this to everyone too, and i would suggest doing it now while your loved one is healthy and how you want to remember them. in the video my mom is wearing her wig and has that cancer-caused puffy face. i miss seeing her face how i grew up with it, but i’m still so grateful for the video.

    well, again, i’m sorry for loss. i know you’ll find joy in telling your kids stories about him in the future. he sounds like the perfect grandpa!

  12. Aw, I’m so sorry for your loss Brooke. It is true and probably human nature to think that there will always be tomorrow. Hang in there. And thanks for the reminder to not postpone life.

Leave a Reply to hayley Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *