Scottsdale Arizona, Family photographer, McIntyre family

Scottsdale Arizona, Family photographer, McIntyre family

This family is super near and dear to my heart. When I started my photography business about four and a half year ago, they took a chance on me, and they were my very first client ever. I went to high school with Emily here in Chandler, AZ. at Corona Del Sol, I haven’t seen her since then, but follow her and her family on Facebook. I had put out a model search, to try to build my portfolio and she emailed me saying they hadn’t really had family photos, and our working relationship began.  Since then, I have had the opportunity to photograph her family a couple of times ,as well as  sister in law, and her kids, and do some commercial work for their business. This last session was so incredibly special, and I didn’t even realize it until Emily sent me an email explaining.

“Thank you! It was so good to see you too. I appreciate you fitting us in. We had a fun time These pictures will be special because we aren’t all together very often and also my mother in law just got done with fighting breast cancer the past year. We are celebrating her being cancer free. Last October when she was in AZ for Melisa’s wedding, she started having pain in her breast. She went home and had a mammogram done and they told her nothing was wrong. She still had pain and asked to be seen again. They did another mammogram and told her they didn’t find anything and to avoid caffeine and take Advil. She decided to see another doctor because she just felt something was wrong. The other doctor did an intensive mammogram and an ultrasound and discovered she had three lumps. They biopsied the lumps and told her she had the fastest growing type of breast cancer. Shortly after she had a double mastectomy and began chemo as soon as she recovered from her surgery. She went through chemo from April to August. October she had her reconstructive surgery. She wanted us all to be together for the holidays and wanted some nice pictures of all of us. You never know when your time is up and times like these make you appreciate the people you love that much more. These photographs serve as a reminder to us how important we are to each other. I think an important message in this story, especially for women, is to trust your instinct when you feel something is wrong. If she would have listened to the first doctor, she may not be alive today. My mother in law is very religious and she relied on her faith in God and lots of prayer to help her through this. Each decision she made in this process was based on what she believed God wanted her to do.”

What a touching story, and I feel so incredibly blessed to have been a part of photographing this family together and healthy. Love each other everyday, hug each other tight. Our time here on earth is short, and as Emily said, you never know when it’s your time. You must have lots more to do here Dee. Was such a pleasure photographing your beautiful family! XO

Love, and many many blessings,

Mel