Brock Heasley

There are saints among us–good people who do a good work because it’s good to do. Goodness can be and is the greatest reward, but it’s not often the motivator it should be. Not so with Sweet Nectar Society, an organization that, in its own words, “brings together a network of talented photographers throughout Central California for one important mission—to capture the hope, courage, and strength of children undergoing treatment for serious illnesses, disabilities and injuries, and provide their families with lasting memories.”

Basically, they take gorgeous, realer than real pictures of children with special needs and gift them to their families by way of slideshow, coffee table book and a digital copy of every photo. The photographers are of such skill that the package altogether would cost in the many hundreds of dollars. If they asked anyone besides donors to pay for it.

My middle daughter, Cami (who I wrote about in a pair of blogs last week), was recently blessed with a Sweet Nectar session. My wife Erin, who, at this point, has waged so many battles on Cami’s behalf that I’ve lost track, participated in the shoot as well. Now, not only do we have the sweetest, truest photographs of Cami, I’ve ever seen, but we have her unique relationship with her mother captured on film. It’s a pretty remarkable set of pictures.

You can see the photos for yourself at this blog. The brief paragraph the photographer wrote about Cami and her experience working reminded me of just how difficult some of the past seven years have been. I had completely forgotten that early on a geneticist told us Cami likely wouldn’t live past three. She was a bonehead.

I’m grateful to have the perspective of 2012. We still don’t know what in the world will happen with Cami or how long she’ll live, but we do a lot better with enjoying what we have with her now. Just what that is and what it feels like to be in Cami’s presence day in and day out can be difficult, I think, for others to see and appreciate. Thankfully, we now have these photos.

Tags: angels, bonehead, cami, geneticist, mitochondrial disorder, photography, saints, special needs, sweet nectar society, wife erin