I usually post on Friday, but this past Friday was different. Chelsy, Jess and I have been best friends since middle school. We’ve been through ups and downs, but through it all we’ve called ourselves the “three amigas”. They’ve been on this blog a good amount of times through my pictures of weddings, showers, hangouts, and even the newest addition: Elle. This past Friday we found out that Chelsy’s grandmother had passed on to be with her Savior. As I sat with the news in my apartment and ate my breakfast, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I wanted to be then with Chelsy. Her family has become my family and her grandmother was also my grandmother. So I packed up in a couple of minutes and hit the road. Jess flew in from Philadelphia on Saturday and pretty much all day Sunday and Monday we were with Chelsy and our “other family”.

We laughed with them and loved on them and while it was a sad occasion it was also a celebration of her 87 years. Mrs. O’Klok was a wonderful woman that loved her family fiercely, adopted in anyone who needed a grandmother, adjusted to whatever life gave her, and was just as funny as she was loving.  She will definitely be missed, but not forgotten.

Back in the day when digital cameras were still relatively new, you had to take a selfie by just kind of aiming the camera at you… the screens didn’t flip around for easy selfies 😉 Chelsy and I made a kind of art of the selfie with the big and little faces. Chelsy’s grandma was having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to her new place in assisted living and we would visit her often. To make her laugh we printed out two pictures similar to the ones below of our big and little faces and framed them for her. (This is was also the time when I thought everything looked better in sepia.) When we gave her the frame she said that she was going to hang it in her bathroom because our small faces looked like we were trying to go to the bathroom….sure enough that’s where the frame went.

I feel so honored to have been there when Mrs. O’klok first met her great-grandaughter Elle, Chelsy’s daughter, this past year (one of the many reasons I love being a photographer). She was instantly possessive of Elle and they definitely shared a special bond to the end.

Like I said earlier, this weekend was also a celebration of Mrs. O’klok’s life. Just like she did for Mrs. O’Klok, little Elle definitely brought a special light to everyone when needed. The bonus for Jess and I was we were able to help take care of Little Miss 🙂