I don’t even know what to say about this recent LA Times piece, except that there are some damn nice people in the world.
The article is about a photographer who volunteers to take pictures of families who are about to experience what must be unimaginably painful: stillbirth or the imminent and early death of a sick child.
This photographer does all the usual portraiture and holiday photos, weddings and other occasions. That’s how she earns her living. But over the past few years has also donated her time and photostock to pregnant women or families who are bracing themselves for the sadness of this most profound loss. These families want some way to preserve their memories of the sheer joy of even the shortest lives and she gives it to them.
Since the photographer first started, and word spread, demand became so high that she had to recruit other volunteer photographers to do it too. Now, she’s formed a network of bereavement photographers in most major cities around the country.
Doctors and hospitals used to whisk stillborn babies away, thinking out-of-sight-out-of-mind. But now they realize parents need to hold the babies, whether alive or not, and families often don’t want to forget and can’t. Now it’s the nurses and doctors who let patients know about bereavement photography and even arrange for it.
Photo: LA Times
