In Which I Face My Mortality by Taking Pictures of Myself
We’re all going to die. We’re all going to die and then people are going to run around trying to gather pictures of us to either put up on display at the funeral home or put into a nifty little slideshow set to music in order to play it at the funeral. While I was visiting Michigan this last time, I attended the funeral for the father of one of my oldest friends. He was one of those involved types, close to his daughters and their friends. His funeral was beautiful and sad and he had a slideshow with all of these pictures of him and all of the people he loved. Sad and lovely. Here’s what I did with my grief:
Those were all taken at my sister’s house immediately after the funeral. My kids weren’t there. They were camping, but I hooked up with them later:
We’re all going to die. Take pictures of yourself with people you love. Even if you think you’re ugly because you’re not. You’re somebody’s mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, daughter, son, niece, nephew, granny, pop-pop, cousin, or friend. And even if you really are ugly, your loved ones will want to look at pictures of you after you die.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
This makes me want to cry because it is so true.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
It’s sad that funerals are such a great way to see so many people you love and miss at the same time. It’s like one last gift you give your loved ones. Way true post, I’m going to grab my camera now….
July 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
My grandmother hated having her picture taken. The last picture I have of us together is on my wedding day 9 years ago and she’s scowling. I have ONE picture of her with Jamie, and I took it on the sly so it’s an action shot and neither one of them are fully facing the camera. And now she’s dead, and that’s that.
My step mom is the same way and it’s been about a year since she’s let me take a picture of her and Jamie. And that’s because I got really pissed off and told her if she dropped dead tomorrow, did she really not want Jamie to remember what his Meemaw looks like???
July 31st, 2008 at 10:57 am
I can’t believe Alle’s dad passed away…please let her know I am thinking of her and her family. What a cute little girl she has also!
I really like the photo idea…may have to take you up on that.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:21 am
You should spearhead a campaign-”Take pictures of yourself”-kind of like those Dove soap people did-but encourage people to keep their clothes on. Cute!
August 1st, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Word, Abby.
I just uploaded 163 photos from our vacation and my mug was in precisely two of them. And I almost deleted both shots because I hated the way I looked in them.
Thank you for the touching post.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:11 am
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