Capturing the memories and things we didn't see

Taking photos has always been very important to me, but especially the last ten years.  I wanted to make sure I so many photos of Noah so I would never regret not taking enough after he passed away.

Whenever I imagined Noah's funeral, I always knew that I would want someone to take photos. I wondered for a little while what people would think about people taking photos there, but then didn't care because I knew it was important to me and Aaron to have the photos to look back on in years to come.

Weeks after Noah's funeral I sat down to really look closely at the photos, and was so glad that we had people taking them for us. There were so many things I had forgotten about or didn't see at all, because the day was so overwhelming.  We even saw people in the photos that we didn't realise were at the funeral, or had forgotten that they came.

If we didn't have photos taken at Noah's funeral,  I would never have these of Aaron with his Dad and sister Trudy.


It was nice to see him having some fun after a really hard and emotional day.


At Aaron's funeral I had even more people offer to take photos, and I took everyone up on their offer.  I knew I could never have enough photos, and the more people taking them the better.  Some of the photos are hard to look at now, but I'm so grateful that I have them as I'm sure it'll help me and the boys in years to come.

I especially love ones like this - a classic photo bomb from Gaz.  Something Aaron actually would've loved and done himself! :)

I like this photo as it has my stake president and bishop from church in it.  Two awesome men who helped me a lot straight after Aaron passed away.  They were at my home within hours of us getting back from St Helens (where Aaron passed away).

Jalen was so sad at Aaron's funeral, but then there were glimmers of the funny Jay that we know and love.  I didn't see any of this happen, but am so glad that others caught it on camera for me.  It's crazy to think he's leaning against the hearse with Aaron's body in the coffin in it, but he's able to have a joke with his friend Jackson at the same time.  He's definitely his father's son in that way. 

Thank you Chelsea, Fiona, Leona, Chrish, Alison, Donna (and even Jalen!) who took photos for me at the funerals.  I'm so glad that I can look back and be reminded of things that happened, things that I missed,  people that were there, even though they are days that I wish never had to happen.