I love taking photos, not of myself of course, but of everyone else. Who wants a photo of me!! I don’t need a photo to exist of me looking like this.

Sound familiar??

This is how I felt until reality slapped me across the face last year. You see in November last year, my mum was diagnosed with advance breast cancer that had spread. She is terminal. There is no cure. Facing the fact that your parents are indeed human and can die is something that I was not ready for. Yet here my sisters and I were, trying to deal with it.

Something else I was not ready for was the realisation that I had not taken a photo with my mum for more years than I care to admit and now with the prospect of losing her made me wish I could turn back the hands of time and change that. I couldn’t. But I could fix it, as she was still here with me.

You see it wasn’t just that I didn’t have that photo, that photo didn’t exist for my children to be able to show their children an image of their mother and grandmother. All because I didn’t like the way I looked.

So on Christmas Day feeling very thankful that even though mum was in palliative care for pain management, she was still here and feeling better and I could take that photo of us. It wasn’t too late. I bought along my camera and tripod and took a family photo of my mum and my family, me included! Taking this photo gave us a giggle as I would put the timer on and run for my position then run back and check and do it over again a couple of times. I now have that picture with my mum and so do my children.

Now that I have this picture, I will print one for my mum and one for me to hang in my home as a reminder to exist in more photos. And when my kids, family or friends want a photo, I am no longer going to shy away from the camera because what I see in the mirror they don’t. They just love me for me and want to capture the moment.

It’s not too late for you to start existing in photos.

The next time you go and take a photo of your kids, grab someone to take the photo and jump in with them. These are the memories your kids will show their kids. It is important to them for you to be in the photograph, just as it is important for you to take the photograph in the first place.

XX Shelly