I Want You To Meet Someone..

Hey Everyone!
I FINALLY got this little thing called "technology" working! Yay for me!

OK, today I have a very special post for you...well, special to me.

Now, I normally have all the colors and fonts and sarcastic lines but today I am going to forgo all of that.

This post is a little serious.

Not too serious.

Just a little.

I've been wanting to do this post for a while and, for some reason, now seemed like the perfect time.

I would like to introduce you all to my beautiful grandmother, Wanda Louise Bates Humble Brower.

What a lady.

She is role model of endurance, faith, resilience, and bein' happy with exactly what ya got.

Growing up, we lived about two and a half hours away from her so my childhood was full of summertime visits to grandma's house

She is such a fun-loving and happy person.

She always makes us laugh and is never NOT up for some fun.

She is adventurous and spunky and will neeeever turn down a game of cards.
Her love for music? Unmatched!
I have the sweetest memories of jammin' out to dad playing the guitar and us singin' old timer songs.
So much fun!

My wonderful grandmother did not have an easy life.

In a family of 17 children in a small mountain town in Idaho, she did not have much in the way of material wealth growing up.

Yet, she looks back at her childhood with the fondest of memories.

She doesn't talk about what she and her siblings had to do without. Instead, she tells hilarious stories of her adventures with her sisters.

My grandmother married my grandfather, Dee, and proceeded to have 6 little sixlets of her own.

Dee died of cancer when the youngest of their children was about 6 months old.

There she was, a young widow, with seven mouths to feed.
And she did it.

She survived.

That's what she is, a survivor.

She is brave.

She is tough.

She handles her business. 

(I meant for this to sound a little bit like she's in the mafia..she isn't, but she is bad ass enough that she could be)

When her second husband died after only weeks of being married she did it again, she survived.

Remember, she's a bad ass.

She is also one of the happiest people I know.

Her laugh melts my heart.

And her smile lights up my soul.

I look up to her and I respect her.
She is independent and fiercely faithful.

Two years ago my grandmother was diagnosed with leukemia.
She's put up a good fight and continues to fight.

A few weeks ago my parents, Sweetcheeks, and I visited her in Washington (where my amazing Aunt LaWana and her family are taking care of her).

I decided that, even though it would be hard for me, I wanted to photograph her.

I didn't want to set anything up, I just wanted to capture the phase of life she's in.

I'm so happy I did.

Unfortunately I don't have any older pictures (before my photography days) of my grandmother. 
In a way I am a kinda happy I don't.
These pictures are how I see her...how I want to represent her.
Smiling and happy.
Joyful and loving.
Surrounded by her family.

Thank you for reading about this amazing woman that I am lucky enough to call "grandma".
I enjoyed writing about her.
As grandma always said whenever we said goodbye, "I love you to pieces"!

Shoot ya Later :)