A week ago was a VERY special day! It started by waking up at 7:30am to wash my hair and get ready for Rosemary to do my hair and makeup. I’d gotten to her house just before midnight the night before because by the miracle of stars aligning, with just over a week’s notice, I booked a very special photo shoot on the east side of Cleveland as a way to say goodbye to my body as I know it. I couldn’t believe this amazing photographer could get me in on a Sunday morning just two days before my surgery, and Rosemary had the day off as well! All events leading up to this day were just mind blowing to say the least and I’m SO grateful that it did all fall into place!
So, I drive two hours and stayed the night at Rosemary’s, she did my hair and makeup and made me feel beautiful! I left her house at 9am and drove to the other side of Cleveland for my 10am mini-shoot. I booked a mini garden tub shoot for a half hour, for ten special images, just for me. Before my body changes forever. And it – was – powerful!
The photographer didn’t know I wanted peonies and I didn’t have time to go to the flower farm the day before. The photographer didn’t know I love purple and, after I bought my hot pink roses and little yellow tea roses I regretted not getting something purple, but didn’t have time to go back to get more. That morning, while getting ready at Rosemary’s, the photographer posted that she was setting up for my shoot – and there were purple flower baskets surrounding the tub and peonies & purple mums inside the tub!!! She said the peonies grow in her yard and she thought she’d use them for me because they only bloom for a short time. I was speechless in the best way! She sets the base flowers and said she chose purple because it photographs so well. She asks that you bring your own bouquet of flowers to add your own colors to the setting. I brought 3. One of large hot pink roses for my main tub flowers, and one of little yellow tea roses for sprinkles of sunshine for the tub, and one to hold against my bare chest. A bouquet of roses and snapdragons against my bare chest, like a funeral. Like a burial. Like a rebirth. Beautiful glory in the way I was made. And then add that bouquet to the tub too as I get in, like a baptism, like a burial, like a funeral, like a rebirth. I don’t have words powerful enough!!!
Just a few minutes into the shoot, as she looked at her view finder of the photos she’d just taken, and said, “you’ve only been here two minutes, and I’ve already taken 70 photos! There’s no way I’m just giving you ten images! These are AMAZING!” She told me later that in a mini session she typically takes 200 photos. That day, she took almost 400 of me. 
And then, during the photo shoot, a sunbeam kept coming through the trees and hitting me in the chest. It – was – magical!
Leah made me feel so glamorous, beautiful, cherished, perfect the way I was made, and I left that photoshoot feeling SO lifted, almost giddy and beyond grateful! It was absolutely stunning – the flowers and the colors were so soft and feminine and sexy as hell. And I know the photos are going to be better than I ever, ever imagined! So special!!! And I was so peaceful, I didn’t get choked up until the end when she showed me the last photo of the shoot on her camera view finder. I was just having a moment thinking we were done, I was soaking it all up, and I think it’s my favorite photo of the whole shoot. It’s all part of saying goodbye to my body as I know it, embracing it, and (last Sunday) counting down to surgery the day after tomorrow….
Thank you to Rosemary & others for encouraging me to do this, for connecting me to this very talented and special photographer, for doing such gorgeous hair and makeup, and for being SUCH a special part of this!!! I’m – SO – grateful!!! Thank you, Leah at Cleveland Boudoir for the most special photo shoot of my life!!! Thank you for being inspired by my story and capturing my femininity and natural beauty in SUCH a special way. I can’t wait to see the final edits, although truly, the gallery preview of photos so far doesn’t seem like it needs any edits at all! I felt – SO – LIFTED before surgery, and that was SUCH a gift!!! Extremely serendipitous!!!
“Lifted” became my mantra to get me through surgery. Thank you!!!
And, smile at the universe, I turned on Colorado Blvd in Cleveland, Ohio to get there! 
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