Portrait Projects
Between June 2021 and June 2022, while the world was still reeling from the Pandemic that engulfed us all, my husband and I traveled the Great American Loop in our small motorboat. This 6000 mile journey travels along the rivers, canals, lakes and intracoastal waterways of the eastern United States. Along the way I met many people whose lives were linked to the water and I was curious how they fared during the COVID lockdowns. I asked them: “what did you learn about yourself during the Pandemic?”
J, and J, Alton, MO
J: I learned that I am made from more than what we’ve grown accustomed to and how we were raised and that we can’t settle for what is put in front of you. You have to find the truth for yourself. We had a really tough year. I know everyone did. In January my mom was diagnosed with terminal small cell carcinoma and it was the end of January and we had high hopes that she would survive. In early March I was in a car accident and it was a head on collision and broke my leg in 3 places, shattered my ankle and my foot and they thought they were going to have to amputate my leg! And that’s the moment that I met God. I remember screaming “Jesus, help me!” and I didn’t know what else to do. I was stuck in this car, the car is literally stuck into me: the emergency brake went through my leg and they had to cut me out of the car-it was pretty awful but God was there. I literally felt his presence and could see, whether you believe it or not, angels surrounding my car and God saved my life. I was in school: I wanted to be a nurse practitioner and I left school and decided that I was going to be a minister. And then with COVID and everything I wasn’t able to see my mom because she was so sick and to take the risk of being in contact with her just wasn’t worth it. So that was really hard. She did pass but not until June of this year so we were able to have services for her which I am glad of it. We also all got COVID in November, after months of therapy and getting back on our feet. And that’s when we decided to go sailing. We were already sailors, and we had bought a race-boat on the other side of the state.
J: Two weeks before COVID hit we went and looked at a boat just north of Detroit and we thought we would just go every weekend and run it to the next town and just work our way around the state of Michigan. And then I came back to my work and they were doing voluntary lay-offs. I got the voluntary lay-off and we spent the next month and a half, just sailing and I had full benefits and COVID relief pay: it was life-changing. And then when we came back, there were so many experiences where God really shined in our lives and this was right after the recovery from her accident and that’s when it dawned on us that God has something for us. Both of our left legs are messed up (mine was run over by a semi in 2015). We were both on fire after each of our trips and we were both so happy to go out, even after a workday and at the weekends we would go out and sail. After that we kind of stopped going out for a bit and then Jamie looks at me one day and she goes: you know we don’t praise God as much as we did on the boat and we were never so thankful for like as much as we were on the boat. And it was so true- from sun up to sundown and even staring at the stars, it was just, it is such an incredible—it’s just such a different energy that you get and instead of waking up, punching a clock and hoping for the weekend, spending your money on the weekend to get a little dose of happiness…..so anyways we went from a $100,000 a year job with good union benefits to like, wherever God is going to take us and be led to where we can help and earn enough to get to the next place or just hunker down. We know that God will provide for us and he wants us and our children to experience much more out of life.