A few years ago when my cousin was in rehab, she was allowed a home visit right around her birthday so we went up to my Aunt & Uncle's house for a little "home visit / birthday celebration." It was the beginning of August and we spent the afternoon in and around the pool, which is where I took the following picture (some of you might remember it from my asking for help cropping out the woman who is no longer in it).
It quickly became one of my favorite photos I've ever taken for several reasons. My uncle, who was...maybe 62 around the time, had been afraid of water pretty much his entire life. Our families have had pools since I was in high school and he never got in one because of it. I'm not sure exactly when that fear dissipated and when he finally took the plunge but this picture was taken one of the very few times I've seen him in water. He has always been closer to Alexis (the one in the picture whose birthday we were celebrating) and my aunt has always been closer to Ashley so I loved seeing the two of them together in this picture. Plus, they look genuinely happy and that's not something I often see in my uncle's face. He's never been one to talk about his emotions and has always shown his love and appreciation for other people in material ways. To see him so obviously happy in this photo, just hanging out at the pool with his family, makes me feel happy.
For years, I've wanted to give him the photo but I wanted to add a little something more than, "hey, look at this great photo." So when I received an email awhile ago from a friend that made me all appreciative and teary-eyed, it inspired my family Christmas gift this year. I went through photos I've taken of my family, picked my favorite one of each of them, and wrote a note that said a bunch of stuff but is pretty much summed by the last part of it:
So. Put the photo up somewhere you can see it every day. Or hide it in the bottom of your sock drawer. Either way, when have you a lousy day…when you wish you were someone else…when you doubt yourself…when you don't much care for who you are…look at it. And realize you're an amazing human being. I'm glad I know you.
I wasn't going to share the photos publicly because I wanted them to be just for them. But I believe each one of them has put it up somewhere they can see it everyday, which I think is fantastic. And they're phenomenal photos of phenomenal people.
So I'm sharing.
The one I posted above is the one I gave to my uncle.
Alexis' photo. She's never been very close with my aunt and in addition to Alexis looking beautiful, it's one of the few photos I have of her and my aunt together.
Ashley's photo. The one I really wanted to give her wasn't of good enough quality to even enlarge to a 5x7 so I settled for this one, which I also love. The girl simply does not take a bad photo and is usually a complete ham when having her picture taken. In this one, she's relaxed but is still just...Ash.
My aunt's photo. This is her permanent face. Beautiful, happy, smiling Nan.
My mom. I don't have many photos of her because she doesn't much like herself in photos and I understand that completely. This was a candid moment she didn't know I caught and it's one of my favorite photos of her letting go and having fun. P.S. In her glass of champagne is one of those little penis straw toppers often found at bachelorette parties.
My dad. The world's nicest guy and when I looked at this shot, the first thing I thought was, "yeah, that's dad." I'm pretty sure he was waving at me and saying, "hi, my girl."
Possibly my favorite photo of my brother. Ever. There's layer upon layer upon layer to him and somehow, this shows each one.
My niece(ish). This is the photo I gave to her mom (who is my brother's girlfriend) because I don't have a single photo of her that I could have used. Plus, the entire point of the gift was for them to see themselves through someone else's eyes and how better to see yourself than through your children? Is she not the most beautiful little 7-year-old you've ever seen?
And that's my beautiful family.
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