By Jason Sickles
The focus of Jessica Sowards’ portraits are usually warm fuzzies — baby bumps, birthdays and other family milestones.
So it was with great irony and pain this week that the Arkansas photographer snapped the saddest image her lens has ever captured.
The photo is of her close friend April Smith lying in a hospital bed. Smith’s face is swollen and battered. Two broken legs and a fractured pelvis will keep her from walking for months.
But even worse, the tornado also claimed the lives of her two children, 9-year-old Cameron and 7-year-old Tyler.
The whole family, along with husband and dad Daniel Smith, were beneath a mattress in a bathtub last Sunday evening (April 27) when the violent twister obliterated their Vilonia, Ark., home. Daniel suffered head trauma and is recovering at a separate Little Rock hospital from his wife. …
… Before leaving, Sowards asked Smith, 28, if she wanted her to take her photo in case she someday wanted to go public with how she persevered. The grieving mother agreed with one stipulation.
“Show them now,” Smith said from her hospital bed. “Show them what my God can overcome. Show them now.”
Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/arkansas-tornado-victims-message-of-hope-in-the-face-of-huge-tragedy-goes-viral-181511796.html
Read the original blog: The Cheerleader