Celebration of life
Warning this Blog has sensitive material and talks about death.
Hello there! I am Vanessa Jo Underwood. The JO is important to me because I’m named after my grandpa, Wello Joe. (Yes, we spell it Wello and not Abuelo) Growing up we all (his grandkids) would call him Wello Joe. Little did we know Joe wasn’t his legal name it's Manuel Betancourt, Joe is a name he made up for the ladies (now that’s a story for another time). I love it because we’re all named after Wello Joe and it’s his made-up name.
The older we got he would ask us to call him Uncle Joe, he said “I’m too young to be called grandpa”. So I made it my mission every time I saw him in public I would scream GRANDPA JOE! Sometimes he would hide and pretend he didn’t know us. If you’ve ever met him you’d know he was a jokester and loved music. I wouldn’t be the artist I am today if it wasn’t for my Wello Joe. When we would get together at family gatherings he would ask me to stand in the middle of the room and would name off different songs he’d want me to sing to the family. The songs were usually classic country like Coal Miners Daughter by Loretta Lynn, I Told you So by Randy Travis, and George Strait many would argue George Strait was his favorite others would disagree. That’s one of the great things about Wello Joe he made connections with everyone he met, I hear so many wonderful stories about how he’s impacted people's lives.
Here is how he impacted mine. Wello Joe passed away when I was 16 I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was like any ordinary day I was listening to Country Music getting ready for the day that is when my phone rang. It was my Grandpa he said he said he was heading home. (he was visiting his brother in San Antonio, Texas) He said Mija when I get home I want you to sing that song for me. (It was Need You Now by Lady A) That day he made it Home just not our home. Not even an hour after our phone call he had a massive heart attack and passed on the scene. It was so hard to believe. I didn’t want to believe it to be true. Now that I look back he was so young, he was only 56 years old.
Few days had passed since his passing and it’s the day of the Viewing/Rosary. I remember walking down the aisle up to his casket and he looked so peaceful as if he were asleep on our couch. I didn’t want to forget that moment so I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a few pictures of my Grandpa. I snapped several pictures from that day but sadly only printed one shot from that day. I lost the other pictures except for the one that I printed. Now that I’m aware of the importance of printed images I made it a point to add a complimentary photo album to all Celebration of life Sessions.
The day we celebrated the life of my Wello Joe is the day a seed was planted. I lost my passion for singing without him singing was never the same. Learning to live without him I grew this newfound passion for celebrating with families on one of the hardest days of their lives. Over a handful of close family members passed between 2010-2016 and at every funeral with the family's permission I made it a point to take a picture for my own keepsake.
Coincidently exactly six years after my grandpa passed away our Great Grandma Marie passed. At this point in my life, I’ve discovered the art of photography that’s what I share with you all today. For the privacy of the family, I will share only a few images from that day. Thank you for taking your time to read this Blog it’s is definitely an emotional one but please understand this passion comes from a good place!
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