About Daniel

PRECIOUS BABY PHOTOS


On December 1, 1995, our first child, Daniel, was stillborn due to an umbilical
cord accident. The loss of our son was totally unexpected and devastating. We
were fortunate, however, to be given the opportunity to hold our baby and
admire him as other new parents do. He was perfect and looked just like
his father. We tried to memorize his features, knowing that it was our only
chance. After he was taken away, a nurse took some photos of him and gave
us the roll of film to be developed. We were saddened when we got the pictures
back and found that most of the shots were terrible; our son appeared very dark
and blotchy, hardly resembling the beautiful baby we remembered. Because the
photos were so graphic, we did not feel comfortable sharing them with friends
or family, even though we wanted others to see Daniel as the very real and
special child that he was.

Five years later, a member of our support group, Marty Mueller, said that the
photos could be improved. Marty is a professional photographer whose own son
was also stillborn. We never would have felt comfortable handing over our
precious photos to a stranger, so we were grateful to have Marty carefully
and lovingly retouch the photos. She was able to even out and "pink up"
Daniel's skin tones, giving us an image that more closely resembles the baby we
remember. We are so thankful to now have more "palatable" photos of our son
that we can display in our home and share with others.

Thank you, Marty, for giving us a little bit of our baby back, and for offering your
services to other bereaved parents.

Kristie and Michael Shulman


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