For my first ever blog… I wanted to introduce you to the people behind the person, these two amazing souls are my grandparents.
They have been married for 64 years, at what have should have been the highlight of their golden retirement years, they very unselfishly gave up to raise me. I was not an easy kid, but they never wavered in their love and support for me. When I became a mom at 19 they were not happy, but still loved me anyway…when I became a mom again at 20 they were really not happy with me, yet they still loved me (no worries I didn’t have another kid for over a decade..lol) They wanted nothing more than for me to finish college, and be able to support myself and my babies. They helped watched them for school and work ONLY…. I always loved photography, but in the early 2000’s you just didn’t start a photo business, out of your home. Before the Kids, I had a dream of becoming a Dental Hygienist, and at 25 years old.. with a 5 & 6 year old, I passed all my state board exams and walked across that stage. They were so happy, proud, and relieved. So for 13 years, I cleaned lots of teeth, made really good money, then became really bored… I felt stuck in the “OP’ and it was time for a change and a big one. They have supported me through some of the hardest decisions in my life, my happiness was their happiness. So when I told them, I started taking photos again, they both said “well you always loved it, maybe now is the time to do it”. “ You are great at whatever you set your mind to”, their immediate support and love was my driving force once again.
They have declined in age, and memory, when we talk they ask if I am “Still doing those photos” and when I see them, I go through my social media feeds and show them all the photos, and they laugh and laugh, they get a big kick out of it. I even have ideas for them, and they go right along with it, my grandpa says “we don’t have a choice… do we… lol” “NOPE” haha Over the years, they have shown an unconditional love for each other, our family and, myself in ways that I can only aspire to do. Across the board, our family members have multiple degrees, some have no degrees, walked different paths, battled addictions, married, divorced, and married again and oh yeah babies..babies..babies..we have also fought with each other, and laughed our butts off until we cried. But the one thing they have always demonstrated, in every situation (I mean both of them, rock-solid) is that you don’t have to understand someone or even the situation to love them and be there for them. You don’t have to fix everyone or everything, you have a responsibility to love them where they are at. Once my grandma said “If we fixed everything, how will you learn to not do it again? That’s not helping you, that’s hurting you” and man that stuck with me, I have raised five kids, with the guidance of the baby boomer generation mentality and this momma didn’t raise no fools. As long as they are around, you will see lots of photos of them, they let me have creative freedom, somedays they are so grumpy and hilarious with it. Maybe next time I will post a small video clip of a behind the scenes with them, but for now enjoy the one where I made them lay down in their bed, standing over them, with their clothes on pretending to be snuggly and loving after they just got done bickering about the 35-minute drive-thru wait at Wendy’s…LOL.
