Monday, October 20, 2008

A Family Collage for when a loved one has died


Here it is.... My 2008 Family Collage
It is that dreaded time again in our lives when I'm asked for a family photo. This time it was my son's school who asked every child to bring in a family photo. That is such a hard thing for families that have had a loved one die. What should you do? Send in a photo without, in my case, my daughters? That doesn't feel right. How can you send a photo that is supposed to be a family photo that doesn't have the whole family in it. Send in an old photo? Well, that's not an option because Bree and Chloee were never alive together. We never had our whole family on this earth together.

It's a huge dilemma of the reality of death for families that are grieving. I've tried lots of things such as putting orbs in photos for them, having an angel bear in their place, wearing a necklace that had something from each girl on it, making a collage with different photos... Nothing seems right because nothing can replace an actual photo with everyone in it.

This year, I decided to do a collage. I asked my son to draw pictures of his family members. (He's in preschool and their drawings are sooo precious! Don't you LOVE my hair!) Then, I used some digital scrap clip art from Shabby Princess and put them into a collage. It is definitely not want I really want - I want a real family photo with all of my children in it, but it's going to have to do. It's better for me than sending in a photo without my girls and acting/pretending/letting others believe like they don't exist.

But that's just me, every grieving parent has to make their own decision about what to do with the hard reality of family photos.

(I took my son's name off for internet safety issues.)
Credits to Shabby Princess for digiscrap clip art.

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