It Breaks My Heart

My neighbor, Glena, is fighting her second battle with cancer. She is an incredibly wonderful and strong woman. She has substituted in Primary a few times since I've been in the ward, and I just stand in awe of her. She has an incredible ability to capture all the little children's attention and hold their attention. A little over a year ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went through a, no doubt rough, year of treatments for that. During a follow-up visit to check and see if the cancer had returned her doctors found a completely different cancer present now. She's been diagnosed with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer. I was asked to do some family pictures for her since she doesn't know how much longer she has left.  I took these a week ago, and now her head is already bald again. (Her hair had just only started growing back from her first year of chemo.) Their three children are ages 4, 5 and 8. The oldest, the boy, is pretty severly autistic. She especially wanted one-on-one pictures with each of her kids. I think these may be some of the best pictures I've ever taken.  I really tried to capture the emotion and connection  between mother and children. I really felt honored to finally be able to really do something for Glena and her family. It just breaks my heart to think about these precious children loosing their mother. I've also done a lot of introspection this past week. There are so many things that I get caught up in that do not matter, and I've really realized that the only things that truly matter are the ones that are eternal.

I know this picture isn't prefect, but I just love the expression on the 5-year-old!

I think this next picture could possibly be my favorite. I just love it when my children snuggle into me like this.

I made this template with the lyrics to the Primary song "I Often Go Walking". I especially love the last part of the second verse that says "For if I love blossoms, and meadows, and walking, I learn how to love them, dear mother, from you." I think this whole song could have been my theme for the photo shoot. I hope these children always remember the things their mother has taught them.

This last one is of her and her sister. This sister lives all the way in Utah, and has sacrificed so much of her time to be with her sister and her sister's family to help them through the hard times they have faced over this past year.