Being a photographer, one of my favorite things to do while I’m out and about is offer to take a family’s photo. Usually it’s when I come up on a couple who’s arranged everyone in a picture with dad, and mom is on the other side of the camera. So I offer to take it for her so the whole family can be in it.
Grace Rhinehart shares my heart of capturing family memories for random strangers.
While grabbing a sweet treat at Rita’s Italian Ice with her grandson, Blake, Grace noticed a “sweet family” eating ice cream together on a bench outside of the shop.
“Something urged me to ask them if I could take their picture.” Grace wrote in a Facebook post that has since been removed. “They said yes.”
Grace snapped the photo on her cell phone, then handed it to the family so they could send it to themselves. They exchanged numbers and said thank you before Grace and Blake headed on their way.
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In the car, Grace explained to her grandson that she often offers to take pictures of families she doesn’t know.
“I left to take Blake home and explained to him how I have done this before when I see cute family moments of total strangers so they can have the memory.”
What Grace didn’t know at the time was that her quick encounter with the family at Rita’s was more valuable to them than she could have ever expected.
Ten days after snapping the photo of the “sweet family,” Grace received a text from the father:
“Dear madam, you took our picture in front of Rita’s on June 8th.
My wife has passed away yesterday and this is the last picture we have together as a family.
Please accept my deepest gratitude for your kindness, it means the world to me.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Grace’s heart immediately broke for the grieving husband and his two children. She responded back and learned that the man’s wife had been sick for about a year.
She says there was no coincidence in the urge she felt to take their picture that day. Grace believes it was the Lord prompting her:
“My [heart] is heavy for this sweet family I don’t even know and the gift that was left to them ’cause I listened to my gut that day.
This has the hand of God written all over it.”
Isn’t that the truth! I have no doubt that God spoke to Grace that day outside of Rita’s. And now he’s using her simple act of obedience to bring a peace that surpasses all understanding to the grieving family.
