08/27/2026
Yesterday I photographed a beautiful extended family session on their family property, and I had one of those little life is weird moments that I can’t stop thinking about.
There was an old red truck sitting out back. Some of the family thought it would be really cool to use, while others were very much like, “Nope, we hate it.” 😂
Eventually, I learned that it was a family heirloom, an old truck that had belonged to their grandparents, and of course, we ended up using it. It made for some really cool photos.
But standing beside it immediately reminded me of something from my own life.
When I was about 18, my siblings and I had family photos taken by a local photographer. He had an old, rusted farm truck sitting on his property with the name “R. Ash, Listowel” painted on the side, and we took some of our photos leaning against it. At the time, it was just an old truck. Nothing more.
About five years later, I met my husband, and somewhere along the way, that photographer and his old truck came up in conversation.
It had been my husband’s grandfather’s truck.
So years before I ever met my husband, before I knew his family, I had unknowingly taken family photos with a little piece of his grandparents’ history.
And yesterday, standing beside another family’s heirloom truck, I thought about that picture again.
It made me think about all the strange, invisible red threads that run through our lives without us even realizing they’re there.
My husband’s grandparents are truly angels on this earth and some of our absolute favourite people. They mean so much to us that when we had our daughter, we gave her Ash as her middle name, for their family name.
And somehow, years before I ever knew what that name would come to mean to me, I was already standing beside it in a photograph.
I pulled that old picture out last night when I got home to look at it. (swipeto see it.)
Maybe it’s just coincidence…
But I really love those little red threads life leaves behind. The ones you don’t recognize until years later, when you look back and realize they were there all along. ❤️
