The Party That Meant Everything
Back in March, a mother named Elze reached out to see if I would photograph her daughter’s first birthday party. It turned out that this wasn’t a typical first birthday party. Her daughter Anouk had developed a complex immune deficiency when she was born, and at times it was unclear if she would survive. After many surgeries, blood transfusions for both Anouk and Elze, and months in and out of the hospital, this family is now home, trying to look forward while all too aware of everything they have been through.
Elze and her husband Louis wanted nothing more than to celebrate their family’s triumph at this one year mark. They invited the UCSF doctors and nurses who were pivotal along their journey. Even the UC Berkeley marching band performed and paraded down their street.
What I witnessed at this celebration was such an outpouring of love from friends, family, and the community that it still gives me goosebumps. I’m honored to have been a part of memorializing this meaningful moment in time.
This is the moment I first met Anouk.
Elze said in an email, “When you see Anouk you will see her force. She is independent, she walked at nine months! She is curious and social and she touches people. She is a healer.”
Elze and Anouk
Elze continued,
“I have been reflecting on the idea of gravity. I felt the force of gravity for the first time when I was living in doom. The feeling of waking up and being crushed the moment you remember where you are. In my daughter, I see the force that favors life. The force that counters the force of gravity. The force that causes a seed scattered in the wind to grow into a big tree. The force that causes her to reach up and take her first steps. We lift our babies off the ground, against the force of gravity, and we raise them up to the sky.“
Anouk is lifted onto her father’s shoulder’s as they parade down their street.
Elze used crafting to help her get through the difficult days and nights. These beads of courage symbolize key milestones along Anouk’s journey to recovery.
The UC Berkeley marching band perform in the backyard before parading down the street.
The mantle of my protection.
Elze had jean jackets made that refer to a passage from a poem by Maya Angelou titled “Continue.”
She said, “We were the three people who lived in the hospital together, the three musketeers and I wanted us to have our battle clothes. We said, ’One for all and all for one.’ It was all for her. The wolf is an apex predator and it represents me slinking around the halls of the hospital. You know what the mother wolf does when a wolf pup is hurt.”
Elze made buttons for each of the doctors and nurses who contributed to Anouk’s recovery
UCSF Dr. Tai shows her button to Anouk
Anouk greets her neighbors across the street.
A son of one of the doctors looks through the story of Anouk’s first year.
Elze walks her mother through verses of the Maya Angelou poem “Continue” along with 12 months of photos of Anouk.
Elze and a neighbor embrace.
