Three Photographs, Three Vignette's

Jennifer shares photos and stories about loss, poetry, and love.

Jul 15, 2025

This is a picture of my dad. He passed away a few months ago and as I look at this photograph, I take pride in the fact that when I took around 7 or 8 years ago, he was being himself; standing outside, smoking a cigarette, content, in his own world.

Sometimes I scroll through the pictures on my phone and I see all the faces of people close to me who have passed on. I often stop and stare, other times I reminisce. Most times I sit in a daze and think about how quickly life changes and how sad and strange it feels because there are so many people I know and love who have vanished from this realm of life.

In the case of my dad, one of the things that come to mind is wonder. I think about everything I didn’t say, ask, or know. But even in wonder about my dad’s childhood or who he was before he went to war, there were moments that I recall and can’t help but cherish. Like the grin on his face at my high school and college graduations and the sound of his voice when he’d say, “I love you baby.”

Rest easy daddy!

Bare

I live in Laurel, MD and I am on the Arts Council. For a project that I am curating, my colleagues chose my work (although my work wasn’t a part of the list) to be put on a picnic table in one of the local parks. We are modeling this idea of poetry in the park, after US Poet Laureate Ada Limón who has done this nation-wide and are planning to put other poems in parks across Laurel.

I wasn’t expecting my work to be added to the list of esteemed poets we’ve selected based on their connection to the state of Maryland and how the piece relates to the park we hope to have it displayed in. I also didn’t know that one of the local schools had chosen my poem “ode to love” from my book “for the LOVE, short stories and poems, vol. 1,” as inspiration for their art project.

It’s been both humbling and encouraging to know that no matter how slow my writing journey feels, I am exactly where I need to be. It’s in these moments when I am least expecting it, that my work shows up in the ways it was intended to be present in the world: As an offering. A telling. As a form of Hope.

Union

Jennifer and Tyrone tied the knot on July 1, 2025 on the campus of the University of South Carolina, where they met 20+ years ago.

I met Tyrone in 2000 in a journalism class. We were both in Dr. Loppicola’s class and quickly became friends. Tyrone, a native of Jersey City, NJ was in his last semester at USC and had arrived there after a couple of other college stints. Even though he had been there since 1998, that was the first time I saw him and when I met him, I felt an immediate kinship. So much so that I helped Tyrone graduate by sneaking into the Coliseum after hours to help him finish his final project for Loppicola’s class. Thankfully he graduated and we weren’t caught because my mom would have been pissed.

Throughout the years Tyrone and I remained friends, speaking weekly and visiting each other several times over the next 20+ years. We even half attempted to date but it was a short lived, long distance affair. It wasn’t until 2020, during the height of the pandemic when Tyrone expressed his true feelings and we began dating (long distance) soon after. The rest is—as they say—history.

When we met in 2000 down in the Coliseum, I didn’t know we’d be together in this way but I knew we were soul mates. I knew that we were destined to have an unbreakable connection.

Tyrone and I have been friends for close to 25 years, together for almost 5 and raising a curious, energetic little boy for the past three. We’ve got forever to go but I believe we’re off to a great start!

Follow Jennifer at writerjns on IG and FB. Visit jennifernshannon.com for more.

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