Saturday, December 3, 2011

Family portrait when one is missing

How do you take a picture of your family when your family isn't complete?  I've seen families include a portrait of their lost one, but I don't really feel comfortable doing that.  We went for a subtler approach.  In 2009, for Cora's birthday, we bought a Shining Stars stuffed beagle with a code to name a star.  So we named a star near Orion's belt for our Cora Rei (okay, I know it's not really legitimate but that's okay).  Anyway, we then took a family portrait on Cora's birthday and included the puppy to signify her.

Well, we got a great coupon for The Picture People, and since it'd been so long since we'd had a professional portrait done (we hadn't had one since!), we got one done today.  And the puppy joined us again.
I don't know how long I'll include him.  As long as I can.  It'll probably be weird once I stop having young children, but I don't care.  It makes me feel like she at least got to be in our family portrait somehow.

3 comments:

  1. A classmate of mine died in a car accident our 9th grade year...sadly her older sister also died in a car accident before she turned 16. Her mom always held precious moments dolls on her lap for each of her daughters, even when their last daughter was a teen, even now in family photos with her daughter and grandkids. I LOVED that there was always that honoring of their lives, they will always be in the family no matter that they went to Heaven first. We honored my dad in our family portrait by wearing our vikings shirts as he LOVED the Minnesota Vikings... I love the puppy...keep it forever in your photos if you wish! Cora will always be a presence in your family, being in heaven doesn't change that fact.

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  2. I love this so much, not only as a baby loss mom but as a professional photographer. What a beautiful idea.
    Sending you lots of love. xo

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  3. Family Pictures are always hard for me I don't ever know what to do. Pictures are not really appropriate in my mind but.... I am trying to find something also

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