Uff.
A Birthday that should be, a birthday that is and Mother's Day
This time of year is always difficult for me. You see, my son should celebrate his birthday on May 3rd. His 32nd this year. Instead, he is now dead nearly as long as he’s lived. Fuck cancer.
On May 6th, 1993 we got to take him home. It is my birthday.
And just a few days later, I celebrated my first Mother’s Day.
And for 16 years it was great. Until it wasn’t.
When Sebastian died, a whole lot more died. Was I even a mother any longer? Without my child? Who, what was I?
I’m still a photographer. He was a big fan of mine. Often hovering over my shoulder to see what I was editing. And even more often annoyed when I brought my camera on family trips and lost myself in shooting. But we also went on trips, just the two of us, and he would film :-)
This year, there is this fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Today's entry for my fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.
https://www.facebook.com/donate/9267815226660635/
Take a picture a day for the month of May. While I’m not necessarily taking a picture for it every day, I am posting images I created and that have meaning to me and us.
This year, on my birthday, I took a wilted bouquet of flowers to photograph. I needed to create. I wanted to create an image using these flowers.
The Three of Us
The stark blackness swallows everything, much like the void that opened in our lives.
These once vibrant blooms, now withered and drooping, echo the slow fading of our child's light.
The single, unopened bud reaching upward, fragile and alone, is the ghost of what could have been, a future stolen by the relentless shadow.
Each curled and brittle petal whispers of tender moments, now just memories we clutch like fragile fragments.
The stems, barely able to support the weight of their former glory, mirror our own brokenness, the enduring ache of a love that had nowhere left to grow.
This stark image, a silent testament to a life unfulfilled, is etched onto our hearts, a constant reminder of the beauty that slipped through our fingers and vanished into the dark.