ProShots by Jen

I was hon­ored to be asked to work with Metro Meals on Wheels on a project to increase aware­ness of the ben­e­fits of their ser­vices. It has been one of those projects with unex­pected rewards.

They are cre­at­ing a video to be released later this year, and dur­ing the video shoots with East End Pro­duc­tions, I’m cap­tur­ing still pho­tographs of some of the recip­i­ents. We’ve only done two of sev­eral shoots so far, but the theme is con­sis­tent, and I expect it will continue–heartfelt grat­i­tude. Meet Norm and Doug. Doug is shown with Kelsey, Out­reach Man­ager for Metro Meals on Wheels and lead for this project.

These folks absolutely rely on Meals on Wheels to pro­vide them with healthy, tasty meals. Both Doug and Norm com­mented that with­out Meals on Wheels, they would not be able to main­tain a healthy diet and more impor­tantly, prob­a­bly would not be able to live inde­pen­dently like they do today. It’s key for their health, but more impor­tantly, they also really appre­ci­ate the social aspect, too. They gen­uinely con­nect with the vol­un­teers who deliver their meals and have peace of mind know­ing that some­one is check­ing on them regularly.

I was espe­cially touched by the fact that they were both Meals on Wheels vol­un­teers before they became recip­i­ents, which moti­vated them to be part of this project. They know how much the pro­gram means to so many peo­ple and wanted to express their grat­i­tude to all of the volunteers!

We have all heard the say­ing that “some things are meant to be,” but I truly believe that was the case on Feb­ru­ary 29 this year.

I am on-call for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep only once or twice a month. And I admit that each day that I am on call I say a lit­tle prayer that there are no calls. When I get a text on those days, I cringe, think­ing that once again some won­der­ful young fam­ily may be fac­ing the loss of their infant.

Unfor­tu­nately, I did get that call in Feb­ru­ary. I packed up my gear and headed down to United Hos­pi­tal. And, as is always the case, I so did not want to see the pain and sor­row in that young mother’s face. The nurses are always so amaz­ingly sup­port­ive, appre­cia­tive and help­ful, and this case was no excep­tion. The nurse escorted me into the room, where to my sur­prise, the whole fam­ily was present. The fam­ily love and sup­port in this room was palpable.

Melody has kindly allowed me to share my story about her beau­ti­ful daugh­ter Solveig. Thank you, Melody! I was so touched by the fact that both grand­par­ents were there; aunt and uncle were there; their fam­ily min­is­ter was there; and Melody and Erik’s two young chil­dren. And, of course, their beau­ti­ful lit­tle daugh­ter Solveig.

I was equally amazed at the won­der­ful expe­ri­ence that Melody and Erik were shar­ing with their chil­dren. They knew their lit­tle sis­ter was gone, and while they were a bit uncom­fort­able, they were also very much engaged in the expe­ri­ence of say­ing good­bye to their lit­tle sister.

I am always so hum­bled by the expe­ri­ence of being a part of these fam­i­lies’ most inti­mate of life’s expe­ri­ences. I espe­cially want to thank Melody and Erik for allow­ing me to be a part of this trea­sured moment for their fam­ily. The serendip­ity is that Melody and her fam­ily are actu­ally from Mah­tomedi and Erik’s fam­ily is from White Bear Lake where my stu­dio is located. Her father remem­bers going to movies at the Avalon The­ater, which is where my stu­dio is now located. In my calls for NILMDTS, I have met fam­i­lies from North Dakota, Wis­con­sin and out-state Min­nesota.  I really do believe I was meant to take this call on this Feb­ru­ary 29th day. Being so close allowed me to get a pho­to­graph printed and ready for them in time for lit­tle Solveig’s funeral as well.

My heart­felt con­do­lences to you, Melody and Erik, and again, my grat­i­tude for allow­ing me to share in your most inti­mate of  life’s moments. I deliv­ered Solveig’s pic­tures to Melody this morn­ing and had the oppor­tu­nity to share a won­der­ful hug with her.