Strength in The Desert

Sometimes life brings you the most unexpected changes…

But I like to believe that these changes are meant to help you find your strength, so that you can emerge much stronger and wiser from the experience than ever before.

I found my strength in the Arizona desert this month, where I spent most of May surrounded by family, who came together to support and care for my grandfather, whose health was ailing.

Grandpa has now passed, and although I am heartbroken, I am also grateful that I was surrounded by his love and was able to spend as much time with him and my family as I could, during this time.

My grandfather, William C. Cole, would have been 87 this year. He was a beloved husband to my grandmother for 67 years, a father, grandfather, great and great-great grandfather whose family meant everything to him.

He and my grandmother were an inspiration to me, and I will always remember how Grandpa’s compassion, strength and will in life were unparalleled.

He constantly reminded me that the best things in life are the people you love, the places you’ve been and the memories you’ve made along the way, and I hope to take that lesson with me and pass it down to the family that Ryan and I will create some day.

I’m sharing these photos that I took during my time spent back home with my grandfather, because the Arizona desert reminds me of his strength and resilience, and of his love for exploring nature.