My mom sent me to the laundry room to get the vacuum. She had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and the Dementia that sometimes comes along with it. I was visiting her home and helping where I could with the cleaning. My dad and her had recently moved into a new townhouse so I wasn't familiar with where things were kept. I went to the laundry room to search for the vacuum in a large closet. During my search I came across a tall thin container with a red handle sticking out of it. I grabbed the red handle and pulled out an amazing red umbrella that I immediately fell in love with. I brought it to my mom and said, "Where did you get this cool thing?" She said it belonged to her mom, my Grandma Vick, and when grandma died my mom inherited it. I opened the umbrella and admired it. "Will you come outside with me and skip across the lawn with this thing so I can take pictures of you with it?", I asked her. "Yes", she replied.

I was both surprised at her answer and also not surprised at the same time. My mom had a hard time moving her legs normally on most days but she was usually up for anything and she knew I loved photography, and let's face it, it was a really cool umbrella. We headed outside and proceeded to have a fun photo shoot. It was a beautiful Spring day as she attempted to skip across the lawn while I documented her short journey. When she reached the far side of the lawn I called to her, "Will you do that again?" She happily said yes and skipped again. I was smiling so big as I took photos and when she once again reached the far lawn I called once more, "Will you do that just one more time?" After her third journey across the lawn we headed back into the house. "Now will you go get the vacuum?", she asked.

The idea to take photos of family members with the umbrella came to me as I was driving home that evening. I wanted to make my mom smile more and also let her know how much her entire family loved her. There was also a feeling of helplessness as I watched her get sicker, so I decided to focus on what I could do instead of what I couldn't do. What I could do was take photos of family members with the red umbrella and then put those photos together into a book for my mom.

So my project began: I set a goal of taking all the photos by early Fall so I would have time to choose/edit/organize the photos to prep them for creating a book before Christmas. I would show up to each family members home with little to no advance notice with a small point and shoot camera. I wanted each photo to reflect something about the family members personality so I arrived with a few ideas but also left room for complete flexibilty and input from the subject themselves. The small camera was chosen in an effort to make the person feel comfortable instead of using a bigger more formal camera that can make some feel nervous. Amazingly enough, no one turned me away and as soon as I gave an explanation of my project everyone was on board.

My memory of when I gave my mom her book is one of my favorite memories. Over the course of the next months my mom shared that book with everyone she could. Each family member also received a copy and whenever I met someone who had heard about this project they always asked me all about the project. On the day of my mom's funeral several family members that I hadn't seen in a while wanted to talk about the Red Umbrella Project. I obliged but they got the version of the story told through my constant tears. A very sad day of course. My mom's copy of her book was buried with her, at the request of one of my sisters.

These are the final photos that went into the creation of the book.