We were lucky to catch up with Michelle Cramer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Michelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I’ve always been into photography. When I was a child, my grandmother bought me a camera and my first rolls of film (yes, back in the days before DSLR). She would end up developing several rolls a month because I would just go crazy taking pictures (often saying “what have I gotten myself into?!”). Photography remained a hobby for me until 2007 when, at a close relative’s wedding, I noticed how the photographer was missing these beautiful candid moments, only capturing the overly posed shots. I knew I could provide a better service. I started my photography business in 2007. I had the eye, but none of the technical skills. So I started studying, finding mentors that would teach me.
In 2008, our first child was born, perfectly healthy with no complications. When he was about a month old, I saw a segment on a national news broadcast about an organization that provided pictures for families who lost their child at birth. I sobbed as I held my perfectly healthy son — I was naïve and didn’t know that stillbirth still occurred (it’s 1 in 160 pregnancies), and in realizing I got something these precious families didn’t, I wanted to use photography to give them something tangible to remember their child by.
So I volunteered with the local chapter of that organization for about 18 months. During that time, I began to see gaps in the services provided; namely that these families had no support system after loss and services were limited to stillbirth, when there were so many families facing the possible loss of their child at a variety of ages.
In early 2013, I was introduced to a 7-month-old with spinal muscular atrophy (the no. 1 genetic killer of children under 2, SMA causes their muscles to deteriorate, eventually leading to the heart and lungs to stop functioning). I went to the family’s home and capture a “day in the life” in photos for them, forming a bond. Three months later, he lost his fight, and I knew that providing this service to families in a similar situation was exactly what I was meant to do. Thus, On Angels’ Wings (OAW) was founded in the summer of 2013.
On Angels’ Wings seeks to improve the mental health and wellness of families with medically fragile children — regardless of race, ethnicity, class status, or orientation — through therapeutic photography and grief recovery services, free of charge. We serve families from maternity to the child’s 18th year, working with families whose child has a medical diagnosis that puts the child’s life at risk, whose child has an extended stay in the NICU (born at 32 weeks gestation or earlier), or who lose a child in-utero/at birth from 21 weeks gestation and after.
In 2014, OAW provided 41 sessions in Springfield, Missouri. Thus far, 2022 is shaping up to be a record breaking year, with 217 sessions completed as of December 15th, serving the entire state of Missouri and parts of Illinois. By the end of 2022, we will have launched our first out-of-state chapter in Oklahoma City, and will have a chapter in Minneapolis in the beginning of 2023.
Our services go beyond photography because we find it equally as important to walk this journey with each family for as long as they will allow us to, supporting them in any way they need. Families who lose a child are sent memorial gifts within 6 months of that loss and on the first three anniversaries of that loss so they know we’re still thinking of them and acknowledging their child’s life. We offer multiple annual events to help families make memories and connect with one another, all free of charge to our recipients. The organization’s Vice President and Support Coordinator, Michelle Slavens, and I are both Advanced Certified Grief Recovery Method Specialists and provide a dedicated 8-week grief recovery program to our recipient families either in-person or virtually. Since the launch of this grief program in September 2021, we’ve taken nearly 25 recipients through it, and hope to see that triple in 2023.
This work is vital. It is my purpose, passion and calling. The families we serve are often hidden, not often acknowledged in the philanthropic world as a set of people that needs assistance. But they are walking a tight rope without a net most days, and need someone to catch them or even help them cross. I am passionate about holding their hand for as long as they will allow me to.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
In addition to photography, I’ve always been a writer — for as long as I can remember I was writing stories and taking pictures. I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s in English Literature, emphasis in poetry. While working in the corporate world, I started a side hustle as a content writer and, when our son was born, I started working from home. I eventually built up to running my own content marketing firm for three years and then became a journalist for a trade publication in 2011. In 2018, the owner of the publication hired me as the Managing Editor. So all while I was building this nonprofit and my own photography business, I was also hustling as a writer and editor.
I was writing on my own time too. As I worked with bereaved families, I began to observe how poorly society handled their grief. People would share platitudes and offer advice, trying to make things better for a grieving family, only to make it worse. Five years ago, I began compiling those stories. And in June 2022, I published my first book: “Unshattered Grief – Helping others through loss without breaking them… again.”
Serving these families through On Angels’ Wings is the most rewarding aspect of using my talents, but a close second is working to use my writing and speaking skills to help change the way society handles the griever — to change the narrative for what our expectations are for how grief looks.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I started OAW, my intention was just to serve our local community of Springfield, Missouri. The local chapter of the organization I previously volunteered for dissipated, so there was no service like it for the families in our area. Within a year, however, the families that were reaching out to us with an in-utero diagnosis for their unborn child were being sent to bigger cities for delivery so their child could have specialized care. We were trying to line up local photographers to drive 3+ hours away to photograph deliveries for children that may not survive long. It became increasingly apparent that we were not going to be able to serve families to the degree we wanted to without expanding. So we started looking for volunteers in other areas, going from four volunteer photographers in our first year, to now over 75.
Contact Info:
- Website: oawphoto.org
- Instagram: @oaw_photo
- Facebook: @oawphoto
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellelcramer-oaw/
- Youtube: @oawphoto
- Other: My personal photography page is: FB/IG @eternalimagephoto My author website is: michellelcramer.com
Image Credits
On Angels’ Wings