When Michelle Allison saw her eight-month-old daughter on a stretcher, being transported to the hospital in an ambulance, she thought “I need to get a picture of her.”
Michelle’s daughter, Makayla, has a condition called supraventricular tachycardia, where her heart beats abnormally fast. Michelle had woken up that morning to find her daughter unconscious and had called 911.
Although taking a photo crossed her mind, Michelle says, everything happened so fast, she didn’t have the chance
Toronto photographer Jen Allison, who is not related to Michelle Allison, experienced something very similar.
Jen’s son was admitted to SickKids Hospital when he was two-and-a-half-weeks-old for the same congenital heart disease as Makayla.
Jen describes her first night at the hospital as nerve-wracking, saying that she didn’t fully understand her son’s diagnosis.
“Is he going to live? We didn't know,” she said. “And I realized I need to be documenting this. All of it.”
“I am a family photographer and preserving memories are such a core thing for me,” she added.
Speaking with CTV News Toronto, Jen recalled looking around the room that her son was sharing with other families and realizing that many were having a harder time.
“Some of those families would only have their child at the hospital and never take them home,” she said. “To be able to give a family a memory to hold on to or even just a moment captured that they can give it to their child after and say look what you've overcome, to be able to give that to them is life changing."
Jen launched Project Mighty Hearts in October. For every session she books with her business, Jen Allison offers a free 45 to 60 minute photography session to a “heart family.” These photoshoots take place either at the hospital or at home, where a child is recovering.
She named the project after her son, who she said has a “mighty heart” that is supercharged.
Makayla, who is now three years old, was the latest participant in Project Mighty Hearts. Jen went to the family’s home for the photoshoot. In one of photos, Makayla and her brother sit on a bed as they play with her bravery beads – a handmade necklace from Sick Kids hospital.
“I think it just, it is making sure we have those pictures of Makayla and letting her see what her life was like,” Michelle explained of the photoshoot. “Knowing Jen and Jen being a heart mom as well, it was important that somebody who got it took those pictures and who understood the importance of the bravery beads and the importance of seeing her sort of at her worst and at her best.”
“It was important to us to have them.”
For Jen, every photoshoot is different. In some instances, she captures “painful moments” of families in the hospital or “sweet moments” between family members. But each moment, she said, is an opportunity for the family to connect.
“What I am hoping to do is give back to these families because a lot of them have given me support and helped me through this year and just to also raise awareness of congenital heart diseases and really help tell everyone’s stories,” she said.
With files from CTV News Toronto's Pauline Chan
