2 years...

June is a month of many celebrations! It's Indigenous month, it's pride month, feels like summer is finally here, we're about to celebrate solstice, the sun is here to stay! And yet, it feels like such a heavy month for me and my siblings. Our beloved mama Michelle will have left this earth 2 years ago come end of June.

It feels surreal. I still feel like im waiting for her phonecall, she's just been away and too ill to call is all. Right? She's going to call me soon, and im going to tell her that her grandchild is talking so much now, and that we look at pictures of her on the wall and Mkawa says "Grandma!".

These past few years i have been navigating how to be someone's home while I have lost my first home. My mommy's belly. Oh how I loved that soft belly that carried 4 children earthside.

As the months, and now the years go by, I have more questions to ask her than ever before.

I miss her raspy cigarette smoking voice. I miss her warm and slightly sweaty menopausal embrace.

I miss her.

And how does this relate to photography? In the weeks leading up to my mom's death, I took so many photos and videos of her with my phone. Last summer, in a freak accident that no computer wizard has been able to solve, I lost all my photos of her from the past.

I decided to take photos for other moms and their newborns, because I wanted all my loved ones to have pictures and memories wiht their loved ones. Finally I purchased a real camera, and realized that taking photos of mamas and their families, enabled me to spend more time with moms and matriarchs and fill my cup this way.

Its such an honour and a blessing to witness these beautiful families love on each other. and to capture these moments on photographs that will last forever. an upside of the digital days ;)