Hey Moms! Be in the photos…please!

On January 21st, 2020, my 66 year old Mom Stella passed away due to complications with multiple sclerosis.

It still feels weird to say that.

As I complied photos for the slideshow of her, I found lots, but only from certain times in our lives. There are barely any of the two of us…or her with anyone really from the time I was 10 until 16. There weren’t many of her with each of her children alone. There weren’t many of her with her friends. And, not surprisingly, it was when I began picking up a camera in my mid-teens that photos began surfacing of her again. I cannot tell you how sad it made me see huge chunks of time missing from that slideshow.

My Mom hated having her photo taken because she had gained weight, or her hair wasn’t done, or she didn’t like what she was wearing. Although all we could see was her love, she was self-conscious about her appearance. If you feel this way about yourself, please know that your kids don’t care. THEY DON’T CARE! They love YOU! They see YOU, the woman, the warrior, the comforter, the MOM.

One day hopefully far into the future, our kids will go through our photos looking for moments when we smiled at a camera or a phone and were caught in a moment. They will seek the photos where we have their baby cheek pressed to our own, their toddler selves on our hip, their school-age grins next to our own and our arm casually slung around their teenage shoulders. They want this far more than the photos of them holding rocks they found on a playground. They want US. They want YOU!

Do one thing for me this year and know that I will be alongside you doing the same…BE IN THE PHOTOS.

Do it for me. Do it for them. Do it for you.