Granny Georgie

I met Georgie today in Lake Orion at a press conference I was shooting for the Detroit News. Gordon Dibler Jr. was thanking everyone for their support during the press conference at the Orion Veterans Memorial in Lake Orion. See his stepson, U.S. Army Pvt. Byron Fouty, is one of the missing soldiers being looked for 24/7 in Iraq right now. I was standing around watching the family and looking for hugs or whatnot to photograph. Georgie was walking toward me and looked like she wanted to talk. Sometimes at these events or other news events people want to be left alone and not bothered by reporters or photographers. I don’t blame them, especially with TV crews around. (That’s a whole other story for another day) But sometimes you can tell they want to talk. They want to tell what they know, or get something off their chest or just let others know what’s on their mind. As she walked toward me I simply asked her, “How are you?” She basically said hanging in their best I can. She is a close friend of the family and has babysat for all the kids at one point or another including Pvt. Fouty. All the kids called her “Granny Georgie”. We chatted for awhile and borth went our way. What a sweet lady. She told me I had a nice smile and someone should take my picture. She also said it must be hard to photograph people sometimes and I said yes is can be and she understood. Meeting people like this even if for only a moment that you will never see again is one of the best things about my job! Keep that hope alive Georgie!