Saturday Stories - Our First Anniversay Portrait

David & Suzanne McClendon with Jared on the way. March 1986.

 When David and I got married, the photographer included with the package a free first anniversary photo session. On our first anniversary, I was on my knees, hurling my guts out. We found out in late October 1985 that our first baby was on the way and our anniversary was early November. I wasn't going anywhere.

At one point during the pregnancy, my blood pressure was 60/40. I couldn't hold anything down (except, obviously, my blood pressure!) My mother-in-law said that I looked like death warmed over. I had to go to the emergency room on several occasions to get intravenous fluids due to dehydration.

Anyway, I wasn't up to getting any pictures taken that anniversary. The photographer said that we could put it off until I was feeling better. I didn't get anywhere close to feeling better until March 1986, and even then it was iffy. This photo was taken in March and I made it through the session without redecorating the studio with projectile ICK.

The little fellow that made me so sick that I thought I would die made it safely into this world in early June, the day before his daddy's twenty-fourth birthday. He was very healthy, weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces.

This photograph is one of my favorite photographs of David and me together.