Welcome to a page of my book, "Exploring Home."
This is an excerpt from that book- pages 188-189.
There are very few places I’ve had unlimited access to explore with permission. Approved access to this house and farm fell into my lap the day my mom died, literally five hours after she passed away. I was sent a text from a friend asking if I’d be willing to photograph a local abandoned location for preservation purposes- a place I had driven by dozens of times on the way to my mother’s oncologist over sixteen months. I never knew it resided right there, behind the trees, within a stone’s throw from where my mother was treated, and where I had spent countless days fighting along her side as she battled the disease that eventually took her life.
The journey into this property lasted for three amazing months. Every single time I entered, I felt at peace. I felt my mom. During my first stage of grieving her death, I questioned my purpose and my reason for being on this earth. This house and its contents made me feel alive. Being inside and being allowed to photograph it confirmed that everything happens for a reason. That somewhere, somehow, my mother had dropped this opportunity in my lap. That I was MEANT to photograph it.
I can’t even begin to express how lucky I will always feel to have been granted permission to experience this amazing, historical place in the way I did. I can’t even begin to explain how photographing it also saved me. I found a new meaning, a new life, and a new purpose at a time I felt at my lowest. I found happiness just when I was on the brink of losing it. I found a reason to breathe again, a reason to survive, and a reason to believe that even though the most wonderful opportunities in life might be short, at least they happened. And sometimes, it’s in those opportunities that we find ourselves again.
The journey into this property lasted for three amazing months. Every single time I entered, I felt at peace. I felt my mom. During my first stage of grieving her death, I questioned my purpose and my reason for being on this earth. This house and its contents made me feel alive. Being inside and being allowed to photograph it confirmed that everything happens for a reason. That somewhere, somehow, my mother had dropped this opportunity in my lap. That I was MEANT to photograph it.
I can’t even begin to express how lucky I will always feel to have been granted permission to experience this amazing, historical place in the way I did. I can’t even begin to explain how photographing it also saved me. I found a new meaning, a new life, and a new purpose at a time I felt at my lowest. I found happiness just when I was on the brink of losing it. I found a reason to breathe again, a reason to survive, and a reason to believe that even though the most wonderful opportunities in life might be short, at least they happened. And sometimes, it’s in those opportunities that we find ourselves again.
To purchase Holly's book: Exploring Home BOOK
To purchase "Marion's Parlor": Marion's Parlor
To learn about Holly: About Holly
To purchase "Marion's Parlor": Marion's Parlor
To learn about Holly: About Holly