09/22/2026
this weekend we celebrated the nearly 96 years of life that my Gram had before she passed earlier this summer. been processing her death personally for a bit but i wanted to share a little bit about her here now because in the same way that i love and cherish capturing and sharing in y’all’s stories, i’d be equally as honored to get to share some of her story with you!
my gram was genuinely the most generous person I’ve ever met - not just with her money, but with her time, her heart, her prayers, her skills, with just about everything she had. she was always cooking or baking something delicious (and usually far too much of it), but that was the point for her: to share it with us.
when she wasn’t creating culinary art she was outside cultivating an absolutely immaculate garden that literally won awards back in the day. not only that, but I think my gram was the closest thing to Snow White that I’ve ever seen. you name a woodland creature, she probably had it pass through her yard and leave fed! the same was true with dogs - they all seemed to have a special affinity for her, probably knowing that she would always give them plenty of love and affection.
and then of course somehow she still found time to create things that are particularly close to my heart as a storyteller: dozens of hand curated photo albums spanning decades. what a gift it is to have those albums with holding so many memories! it’s a great reminder to us all (myself included) to print your photos!! have physical copies of these moments that you cherish. and in addition, this is just another reason why i prioritze and feel so honored getting to capture your (y’all who are my clients!) closest loved ones on your wedding day.
yet again, another shoutout to Emily Reynolds | Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer for the third photo in this set of gram and I on my wedding day! she wasn’t physically well enough to be there that day, so emily very kindly met us at her house to capture a few photos of us together. the rest of these photos are from different eras of my gram’s life…i’m so grateful for the almost 30 of those years that i was able to spend knowing her!
