Jen Eagan
01-06-2006, 08:59 PM
I guess I'll go first in this section to let the families know why this group is special to me. I'm Jen and I'm a NILMDTS affiliated photographer from WA (kind of an AA type intro, huh). When I was 21 years old, my 5 month old baby daughter Hannah died after suffering for two months from a defect she'd had since birth but we were unaware of until 3 months. People would always ask me "how do you do it?"- about getting through something like that- as if I had some sort of choice in the matter. I can either keep breathing and pretending to live until it starts to feel like I'm not pretending... or I can lay down and die- and although once in a while that sounded tempting- I chose to keep pretending to live. Eventually I had more children and started my photography business, always in the back of my head hoping to offer something to families who's babies were stuck in the hospital, or who wouldn't get to come home. After several years, I was told about NILMDTS and didn't hesitate for two seconds about joining. I figured, even though my situation was slightly different, the parents might somehow appreciate knowing that someone else has actually survived what they are going through.
I had my first NILMDTS session in October, a beautiful little angel named Seraphine Joy. She had an injury at birth and was in the hospital and eventually a children's nursing home for almost 8 months before she passed away. In many ways she reminded me of my Hannah, and it was so comfortable and familiar to hold her. She passed away two weeks after these images were taken.
I would just like to add- doing this for this family- knowing that I could do nothing else to help their pain- as heartbreaking as it was for me to get the call that she'd passed, when I showed them their slideshow, the hugs I got from her mom and dad was possibly the greatest thing I've felt in a very long time.
I had my first NILMDTS session in October, a beautiful little angel named Seraphine Joy. She had an injury at birth and was in the hospital and eventually a children's nursing home for almost 8 months before she passed away. In many ways she reminded me of my Hannah, and it was so comfortable and familiar to hold her. She passed away two weeks after these images were taken.
I would just like to add- doing this for this family- knowing that I could do nothing else to help their pain- as heartbreaking as it was for me to get the call that she'd passed, when I showed them their slideshow, the hugs I got from her mom and dad was possibly the greatest thing I've felt in a very long time.