We got a message from a friend Vicky months ago from Chicago asking about a possible Birthday Portrait Session for her grandma in South Bend who'd be celebrating her 98th birthday! (Jenny knows Vicky from elementary/ middle school at Christ the King School here in South Bend and the two probably hadn't seen each other since running into each other in Chicago during college in the mid-2000s.) We initially thought it'd be nice to get her grandma out for an adventure near the duck pond in our neighborhood at Leeper Park, but since she hates the cold and the temperature dramatically dropped within the past couple weeks, Vicky decided that it'd be best if we keep her at Healthwin for her Birthday Portrait Session. Vicky planned the Session by coming in from Chicago and scoping out a few spots at the nursing home (for portraits) and grabbing some fun birthday things such as hats and balloons!
A bit of backstory on Irene from Vicky: Irene Wojtas was born in the fall of 1919 in a small village in Poland. When a bit older, she was a forced laborer on a German farm during WWll. There she met and married her husband Eugene (Vicky's grandpa) who was at the time a Prisoner of War for the Polish army in a refugee camp. It was there in the refugee camp that Irene and her husband had Vicky's mother and uncle John. In 1950 they were sponsored by the Polish-Catholic church St. Casimir here in South Bend, Indiana and were able to come to the states. Here in the States Irene and Eugene then had three more kids- Stanley, Richie, and Teresa. Irene now subsides in South Bend and is visited by family as often as possible. "Busia" as they call her (grandma) is very loved by her entire family. She is a tough matriarch having survived her husband's death along with the death of two of her sons. Her faith has never wavered, though. She loves praying, God, & all things decorated with Pope John Paul ll. Other things that Irene enjoys are kitkats, Ricolla cough drops, kieflies (delicious Polish treats), and has discovered her new found love of Bingo.
Upon arrival at Healthwin, Irene was almost ready for her close-up. She had Vicky put some make-up on her as well as some hair product and then we headed out into the nursing home into a beautiful, more private spot. We gave Irene her birthday hat as she played with some of her balloons and immediately once the camera was out her face lit up with a smile! She smiled for some photos with her granddaughter Vicky, enjoyed her birthday balloons, then started heading down the hall.
Nearby was the chapel, so we all stopped in there for a bit. Irene bought a large, beautiful statue of Jesus for the chapel as well as a plant, so you could tell it was one of her favorite spots. Irene (wearing a large rosary) sat for a second to pray, then upon the request of Vicky prayed out loud in Polish for us. Irene lives her life well and spends much time praying the rosary or visiting the chapel.
After a bit of prayer, we helped Irene back to her room and she stood enjoying all of the potted flowers on her windowsill that she'd been gifted for her birthday! Irene had previously lived in an apartment and loved to garden- even at one point growing a giant sunflower that stretched all the way up to her upper neighbor's porch! In order to keep the plant from being top heavy and falling, the neighbor above her helped tie her sunflower to their porch railing above! Her giant sunflower was a point of pride and she loved how huge it got.
Irene wanted to share a bit with us, so she pulled out some small photos she kept stashed away. She showed us photos of family who'd visited her, Elvis impersonators that often came to visit Healthwin, and various other post cards and photos of loved ones and friends. She wouldn't let us leave without some delicious chocolate tube treats (pirouettes) and some sweet parting remarks.
Thank you so much for reaching out to us, Vicky! Your grandma Irene is one tough cookie, but also extremely funny and sweet. She did a fantastic job during her Birthday Portrait Session and we hope you had a great time together during your visit from Chicago! Congrats on your 98th Birthday Irene, and we're happy that you're well on your way to 99!
Happy Thanksgiving, all! We hope you all have a fantastic day tomorrow! We'll be capturing a Family Portrait Session for Jenny's cousin Samantha and her family prior to our Thanksgiving celebration at Jenny's uncle & aunt'a house (with her cousins, aunts, uncles, and all of the kids- likely 35 to 40 relatives in attendance) tomorrow evening and we hope that you're surrounded by happiness and warmth as well tomorrow. We're currently designing four physical wedding albums, just sent out 3 more packages of physical photo products to clients today, and have (literally) hundreds of photos to send out in a couple days on Friday! When we get back after the weekend we have ONE more fall 2017 wedding to finish editing, 600 photos to print out when they're chosen by our 4 different sets of wedding clients, tons of Christmas cards to print out for our awesome Family Portrait clients, and some prints and New Year's cards to print off some more clients! (All of your Save the Dates are all designed, printed, and delivered now!) There's SO much work to keep us busy and rushing back and forth to the post office to get everything to everyone prior to the holidays! Everything is perfectly on time and on track, though we will likely not be taking any more Portrait Session clients on for December- especially when still volleyball coaching many days a week over the next 3 to 4 weeks. We'll be heading out right at the beginning of January for the holidays and visiting family, so our focus is on our current clients' photo products for the next entire month... and then we head into the "low season" for Wedding and Portrait Photography! We are so excited for everyone to get their beautiful photo products and we're truly excited to design and print the rest of these as you all keep choosing what you want us to create for you! Photos aren't finished products until they're printed and we love the professional quality we provide to our clients! Enjoy your Thanksgiving all and remember to capture the fleeting moments (and have those photos PRINTED WELL) because those moments are fleeting!