I find myself thinking about Sydney Anderson a lot. Sydney Anderson passed away last month. I met her a few weeks earlier - I took fall photos of her family. It's all very cumbersome and difficult for me to explain, but when I read the email her mother, Tracey, sent to me saying that Sydney had passed away, I had to read it at least 5 times to make sense of it. It doesn't make sense, of course. A four year old is not supposed to die, especially one who is so full of life and sunshine. I locked myself in my office and cried a lot. I went home and burned a disk of every photo I took that day. Dropping it off was hard. My heart felt broken. It still does.

I've met a great many people in the past few months, and seen some amazing and beautiful things. I don't know whether any of those things or people will stay with me the way Sydney Anderson does, though. I hope her little soul has found peace. I hope her family finds happiness in their pain. Life can be so unfair. Where is the lesson in a child's death? What good does it bring? I don't know, but I cannot resolve to just accept it. Life can be so cruel.