My Grandma was a sweet, sweet woman.

She loved god and always went to church. She was a very strong person at heart and remained that way until her passing in 2015 at 98 years old. I will never forget the memories with her and what she’s done for me.

In her death, her life and memories live on.

I removed one of the flowers from the wreath that lay on her resting place and brought it home with me. Eventually that flower passed as well as do all things. For 5+ years I have wanted to capture an image of that flower that would represent all things she stood for…strength, beauty, sacrifice, talent, very hard working, kind, and loving.

The flower itself was connected to a stem (strength) and some of the pedals had fallen off (sacrifice) due to the natural deterioration process. The color of the flower was an off yellow color and still had many pedals in place however the entire thing was still extremely fragile, the same can be said of life.

Life is fragile. we shed many layers throughout life’s journey. In any life, there is also death. While death is certainly a negative aspect and is very sad to experience, through that death we can gain new meaning going forward. A life makes sacrifices in order to procure new breath. My intention was to capture both life and death in one image as a beautiful thing.