The Friend Project - Sandy

I've started a new personal project; I call it The Friend Project. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to share photos--some new, some old--of me with the individuals in my life who love me, inspire me, encourage me, laugh with me, listen to me, and surround me with care during this most challenging season of my life. They're my people, and through my diagnosis and treatment, I've come to realize how special & important they are to me.

I'm starting with my dear friend, Sandy. She is the loveliest, most positive person I know, and she's also THE example to me of how to fight cancer with grace.

I chose to do a studio type portrait of us together because it's how we met in 2010. I was the photographer for the company at which she worked, and I had the opportunity several times to take her photo in her work setting. We became friends outside work in 2019, and I had the wonderful privilege in 2021 of photographing her beautiful wedding to Ben. (You can see the pictures and read that story here.) Our friendship is an easy one; and we enjoy lunch dates, shopping, swapping plants--okay, I get most of the plants because she doesn't have a green thumb (yet) & I'm her plant doctor. She is one of the first persons I confided in when I first suspected I had breast cancer.

A week after my diagnosis, she took me to lunch and gifted me a small notebook. "Take notes. Document everything. You won't remember things the doctors say." (Boy was she right! My doctor gave a ton of information at our first meeting, and my little notebook was out in the car.) She promises to teach me to scrapbook and help me get started once I'm back on my feet after surgery.

Besides standing by me, Sandy inspires me to be joyful, humble, loving, gracious, and kind. And while I fall woefully short of the example she sets, still I am inspired to try. The first time I ever took her photo way back in 2010, I thought, "What a lovely lady." Nearly thirteen years later, she is even more lovely--inside & out--than I ever could have known then.

My beautiful friend...