Pictures at a funeral?

When we found out Caleb had died one of the things that got brought up was pictures. My midwife asked if we would like to use a service that provided free photos once Caleb was born. The group that would take the pictures was called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and they did an excellent job via their local photographer Jenni from Blissful Images.  I remember thinking that taking pictures of him seemed wrong because we were all so sad. Why would you want pictures at a sad time? But my midwife reminded me that I might want them later-she already knew what I didnt then, which was that these pictures were all I would get of him.

Fast forward to two days before his funeral, when I decided that since we had already done one weird photo thing, why not do another? I called our friends from Good Life Portraits that had done our wedding pictures. I knew I wanted this photographer there at Caleb's funeral.  He did an amazing job with the pictures (even saying that makes me feel guilty-amazing job of my sons funeral???) and I want to share them. I hope to one day make something more permeant out of them, but for now they are all just on the computer.

Catholic funerals are beautiful and now I have the pictures to prove it. As a life long Catholic I know there are some things that we as a Church could do better-funerals are not one of them. The Church nails it in this area, bringing together beauty, sorrow, and joy. Caleb's funeral makes me smile when I remember it-there was so much love. It felt like the veil between life and death was very thin that day in the Church. I knew that I was passing my child onto safe hands as we invoked the names of the saints. It was as if they were all coming to take him home to the Father. And the priests! We had 5 priests con-celebrate the funeral mass that day-how beautiful. We got to pick the readings ourselves and took great joy in giving that little bit back to our son. I am proud of his funeral, it is one of the few tangible things that I gave him.

If you know of someone who loses a loved one, you might want to suggest bringing in a photographer for the funeral or doing a recording of it. Often times the bereaved person is still in so much shock that they miss the beauty of the funeral and all the kind things that are said about their loved ones. Having a recording of the day or pictures lets the grieving person process it all on their own timeline.

Alright, enough said, enjoy the pictures that are from 2 years ago.

Flowers with the ribbon "son" running down them. At the end of the funeral I had a distinct feeling that St.Maximilian Kolbe was carrying Jesus into Heaven. These roses remind me of St.Max's yes to the red crown of martyrdom and the white crown of purity. Read more about this awesome saint here.

We had Eucharist Adoration for an hour before the funeral. We had decided that we didnt want a receiving line or a visitation-we were too distraught and sad to talk to everyone. Instead we wanted people to be able to sit with Jesus in quiet before the funeral. 

Nathan's two brothers carried the casket it. It was white with a little teddy bear engraved on it

Seeing how small the casket is still makes my stomach flip..its just so sad

All the priest processing in

Love this picture. All of these men played a part in our life at some point and to have them ALL there meant so much

Close to Heaven at the Eucharistic Table

Prayer cards 

Caleb with the picture of Divine Mercy- "Jesus I trust in You"

Love that candle and the hope it gave me