A photo is so much more than just a photo—each one is a moment of life and love captured as keepsakes.
While we all hold our photos dear, no one may understand just how precious and vital photos can be more than recent ScanMyPhotos customer, Brett Stepanik.
Brett, a freelance photographer and photo assistant, struck up a conversation with the Jones* family at a dinner party. The family had a special photo-scanning project that needed the help of someone with a deep sense of empathy, who would understand the gravity of their situation. Fortunately for them, it was a good thing they turned to Brett.
The father of the Jones family wanted to do something very special for his dying wife. Before she passed away, Mr. Jones wanted to show his wife the 1,500+ slides they’d taken throughout their lives together. Since the projector they used to view the old slides was long gone, the family asked if Brett could help them move the collection from analog to digital.
Brett set out to work with the utmost care and diligence, but time was a constant enemy. Mrs. Jones was moved to the care of Hospice and, even though Brett was working night and day on the slides, he knew wouldn’t be able to get them all scanned in on time. That’s when he remembered ScanMyPhotos.
“It was hard for me to pass them over to ScanMyPhotos. After having prepped all the slides and scanned in the hundreds that I could, I felt very connected to them. But once I talked with ScanMyPhotos’ customer service, and was treated like a person, rather than just a number, I was relieved to know they were in good hands.”
Brett’s relief, however, was short-lived. A few days after shipping the slides to ScanMyPhotos, he received an urgent phone call from the Jones family.
“When the family called to tell me Mrs. Jones had taken a turn for the worst and that we needed to speed up the project, I immediately called ScanMyPhotos. The woman who I spoke with stayed late to make sure we got the project done on time. She even uploaded the images to an FTP site so we wouldn’t have to wait for the DVD in the mail. We were in constant communication and it meant so much.”
The teamwork between Brett and ScanMyPhotos paid off. The photos were delivered to the family on Good Friday, and they spent the weekend showing Mrs. Jones the memories of her entire family and life. On Easter Sunday, she passed away, surrounded by her loved ones.
“ScanMyPhotos helped make this very sensitive project into a life-changing experience. I still look at the photos sometimes, knowing how important they were—and still are—and the love the family had, and what they went through to make sure Mrs. Jones saw her memories one last time.”
So much more than photos, the slides prepared for the Jones family, became the gift of a life-time—they were a tribute to life and another special moment for the family to share together one last time.
*The family name has been changed for the sake of anonymity.
