Mary's Hands

Mary's Hands is what I call this image. This is my second prize winning image of hands. I entered this into the Human Interest category at the Shoot the Hills photo competition last year and won 1st place. I was quite proud of myself. Let me fill in some of the details of how I came to find this photographic opportunity. We (Earl, Jeff, Rodger and myself) had been at it for about 23 hours. We only had 1 hour left before the shooting deadline. This particular image was one of the last images I took. I think it was shot just after 12:30 and the shooting deadline was 1:00. As we were heading back to base camp Earl spotted a rocking chair on the front porch of a farm house we were passing. We decided to turn around and ask if we could take a few photographs. The couple who lived in the house were sitting together on a porch swing as I pulled in the driveway and parked the van. Somewhat nervously, I approached the elderly couple and explained that I was in a photo competition and would like to take some photos of the rocking chairs. They were more than happy to allow me to take some photos. After snapping few shots I asked if they would mind sitting in the chairs and allow me to photograph them. The lady (Mary) quickly refused stating that she didn't look nice enough to be photographed. I reassured her that she looked just fine and that she would make a great addition to the photograph. Her husband interjected that he thought she should allow me to photograph her and soon I was happily snapping photos of the two of them sitting in their rocking chairs. I noticed that day that Mary was wearing a hat on her head and that her hair was very thin but I never thought much about it as I was too busy taking photos of them. It has been a year now since I took this photo and I recently went back to the 2008 Shoot the Hills competition. I knew that I would be close to Mary's home so I printed a copy of the winning photo to give to them. I wanted to thank them for allowing me to take these pictures and I thought this would be a nice way to say thanks. We (the same 4 of us) drove out to where they lived to drop off the photo. When I pulled in the drive I thought it looked pretty much like I remembered it. I quickly noticed however that the rocking chairs were missing. I pulled to the back and it looked as if no one was home. I got out of the van anyway and knocked on their door. After a quiet moment of silent waiting, the door opened. I was greeted by the smiling face of Mary's husband. I introduced myself and explained who I was and why I was there. I noticed a young man who looked to be in his early twenties was standing behind him. He introduced him to me as his grandson. After I explained that I had came by to give them a copy of the photo of Mary's hands, he became quiet. After a moment he looked at me and said, "Well you do know that Mary passed away in December!", I quickly apologized and he just as quickly told me it was o.k. He explained that Mary had had cancer and that she was better off, as in the end she was in quite a lot of pain. I felt so bad for this man but I didn't know what to say to him. I asked him if he would still like me to give him a copy of the photo and he said yes. He would like to have it on display in his home. I will be sending him a copy of the photo later this week, I want to write a letter to him expressing my sorrow for his loss and dedicating this photo to her memory. I am trying to figure out how to be sensitive to him and yet still have an opportunity to witness to him. I do not know if he is a believer or if Mary was. If you happen to be reading this, please pray for me as I write this letter. Pray that the Holy Spirit will work guide me as I write. Pray for Bill (Mary's Husband) as he deals with the loss of his wife of many years.

Photoman