12-12-09 Help Portrait – Denver

Friday morning I was on my way to a clients house for a newborn session.  At the corner of Alameda and Sante Fe, there was a woman about in her late 60′s holding a sign.  As a little old lady, I expected nothing else, that the sign be decorated with bright colors, little stars and hearts.  Then words, they just hit me. 

Disabled War Vet
Women of War
Merry Christmas

I know that there is assistance for Veterans, but none the less it’s just not something you should see.  This woman is someone’s mom, someone’s grandma, sister, aunt.  Regardless of what got her there, there she was.  On my way back to the interstate, I swung around to the ATM pulled out some cash and parked my car.  As I walked up to her, she smiled at me.  She was walking with a walker, with her sign, wearing a thin, purple zip-up sweat shirt and typical grandma clothes with obnoxious glasses on.  I took her hand and said, “I seen your sign,” and gave her the cash.  She looked at our hands and started crying.  She said, “Oh my goodness, thank you thank you.”  I looked at her, smiled and said “Merry Christmas.”  I gave her a hug, she whispered the same back to me, then I walked away.  I looked back and she was watching me walk to my car, smiling, gasping the cash I had just given her… then she wiped a tear with her tattered hand.  I will never forget this moment. 

I believe that to truly feel life, you have to give part of yourself to those who are less fortunate. Maybe they are experiencing an illness and are instead at The Children’s Hospital than in their own home. Maybe they are homeless and just hungry. Maybe they are a Veteran, such as the grandma on the corner of Alameda and Sante Fe, and a little forgotten. Regardless the story…. it’s a story, and there are people behind those stories that they belong too. Their story is their life at that particular moment, good or bad.

I volunteer my time to a lot of different organizations, for all types of people and situations. Take a moment and Google ‘Help-Portrait’. You will find videos, pictures and stories of hundreds of people that thousands of photographers from all over the nation have helped capture a single family portrait.  If it weren’t for yesterday, many of these people and families would not have something as simple as a picture of themselves or their family together. With close and new friends, we gave our time to the Denver SafeHouse. Our situation is a little different then many of the Help-Portrait events, because our clients are with the SafeHouse escaping a bad situation at home, abuse.
Unfortunately, you will not see any images from our event. You will not see any video from our event. But you will be able to read about the stories we have obtained from our experience. Our clients privacy has to be protected, for their own safety. That said… we; myself and good friends Kristina, Paul and Amy, Melissa, Ray, and Darcy spent the morning listening, talking, and making people smile that haven’t in quite some time. Seeing those kids so protective over their mothers was… overwhelming.

One of my particular families, a mother and her 10 year old son, he would say to her, “Mom, smile.” and I would make her laugh, snap the pic, and he’d say, “Mom, that was such a pretty smile!” and she said back to him so lovingly, “She made me laugh… I haven’t been doing much of that lately.”  Something about comments like that just touch you and it’s the visual and emotional connection you make with people during volunteer work that makes it so addictive, to give something that simply results in smile.  It’s special.
Another client, a single woman who just needed a little boost. Darcy did her make-up and she posed like a rock star for me. It was clear that she’d never done anything like a photo shoot before, it was special to her and I’m certain that she will carry it with her forever!  That’s why we were there.  That’s why we chose the Denver SafeHouse.  Those women and children, they needed this.

With the help of Mike’s Camera (who’s printing the images for us) we will be able to deliver such an amazing gift to the families we met yesterday this Holiday season…..

Family. Love. Hope.

Thank you to everyone for all your efforts of bring 80+ smiles into that little bitty room.

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