Kolton: Newborn
In July, I ran a contest for my 5 year anniversary as a photographer and gave a free newborn session away. The winner of that session was Melissa Carey, who was then pregnant and due the first part of Aug. She then gave birth to sweet Kolton. I soon learned that his older sister (the next youngest at 8 years old) had asked Santa for a baby sister for Christmas. She brought her Christmas list home the same day mom and dad learned that they were going to be having a baby. As time went on and summer came, mom was getting closer to her due date and Kolton's oldest sister crochetted a puppy dog hat for her still exhibit at the Gratiot County Fair for Youth. Melissa's OB/GYN (Dr. Maslovich), purchased the hat at the fair and then donated it back to Melissa so Kolton could wear it for his newborn photos. See photos of the hat in use below!!! It's so adorable. I may have to recruit her to make more hats for me!
Kolton's dad is a musician and avid guitar player, so of course we also had to incorperate some guitar photos into the session.
Life gets busy and we ended up having to reschedule Kolton's photo reveal session. We met up yesterday to reveal the photos to Melissa and of course Kolton himself.
Fast forward to this morning. I'm on the phone with my mom and she tells me she just got a call from the church to activate the prayer chain. Melissa's father, John Schultz, had past away last night. I read a Facebook post from Melissa's brother stating that he came in from the shop and collapsed and despite the best efforts of so many including EMS and rescue, they lost him.
This serves as a reminder that life is so short. One minute Melissa was celebrating the birth of her son, by picking out which of his newborn photos to be displayed on their walls at home, and the next, she is losing her first male that ever captured her heart. You never know what the next day will bring. You just have to live your life to the fullest everyday, count your blessings, tell those you love how much you love them, and hope that when your day to leave this world comes that you left a legacy so profound that those who knew you are forever changed for having met you. I have no doubt that John did just that. In the days that follow, there will be tears of sorrow for the loss of a father, husband, and an all around great person, but there will be tears of joy knowing that he is in a place far greater than this place we call earth. There will be laughter in memories shared with friends and family and there will be sadness for the days that follow as life has now changed forever more for this family.
I knew today was the day I was going to share this blog post, because I wanted to wait until after Melissa had seen all the photos from the session before I shared these with everyone else. However, I had no idea these would be the words I wrote. I hope Melissa and her family can find peace seeing these photos of their precious addition to the family and knowing that grandpa is watching over them from above.
Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Melissa during this difficult time!
