ZEELAND, Mich. – A West Michigan family had the final moments of a loving husband and father captured by a photographer in Zeeland.
After years of battling cancer, Jamie Trolard passed away on April 18. Photographer Samantha Overway snapped the pictures that will stay with the family forever.
“It’s not supposed to be pretty or glamorous," said Overway, "but it gives people insight into things they may not get to see. It’s a really humbling experience to go into someone’s home and share something like this.”
Trolard battled intestinal cancer for more than two years, a fight that took a toll on him and his family.
“He just kept on talking that his daughters needed their mom back,” said Tina Trolard, Jamie’s wife, "that they needed a parent, they needed some normalcy back. And I think he was ready to go based on the fact that he wanted his kids to have a normal life and that I want my girls to grow up and know something more than just cancer all the time.”
Trolard said she wants the photos to inspire others battling the disease as well as future cancer patients and loved ones, "to be able to show somebody else or another family out there that this can happen to you, that you need to be able to love each other every day for better or for worse, " she said.
Jamie Trolard leaves behind his wife and three daughters.
