One might not think that a photograph of a funeral would paint the perfect picture of a life of love and devotion—but photojournalist April Yurcevic Shepperd captured just such an image—and it has spread all around the world.
Yurcevic Shepperd’s photo shows a frail, elderly widower, Bobby Moore, sitting by the coffin of his wife of 59 years, trying to stretch the last few moments he had with her.
She shared her photograph in a Jan.31 Facebook post she titled, “I Witnessed a Story of Love.”
In her post, she describes how Moore arrived an hour before everyone else, and sat, supported by his cane, next to his wife’s casket, holding her hand, and telling her “I love you” one last time. He touched her, he cried. Finally, too frail to stand longer, he sank into a nearby chair.
He stayed by his wife for five hours, until he could no longer hold himself upright, even with the aid of his cane and the chair. Whatever he had not lost in losing his wife, he was determined to give, in his goodbye to her.
In her Facebook post, Yurcevic Shepperd explains that she had not intended to publish the picture and the story. Bobby Moore and his family, touched by her interpretation of the scene, requested that she post it so others could heal and so others could see what love is.
It is impossible to know how many people have seen the story and been moved. Already, thousands have been so touched that they have responded.
As Yurcevic Shepperd puts it, “In such a world as ours, where vows are broken as quickly as the downing of a gavel, what I saw today was a rarity, a diamond exquisite in design. .... Here was love personified.”
