Alma Fire

(Above) April Carll turns to the crowd while witnessing a historic building in downtown Alma burn on Tuesday morning.

Fire fighters arrived on the scene around 2:30 a.m. and worked throughout the afternoon.

"Stuff like this doesn't happen in Alma," Carll said.

Last Sunday, I spent some time with a family celebrating their parent's 60th wedding anniversary

at St. Joseph's in Detroit. We only had an hour for photographs, so with about thirty family members,

we were rushing to get all the portraits done. I barely had time to breathe, let alone try to look

for the natural moments I truly wanted. I turned around once when they were changing family members

and was able to capture this. I wish I had more time... the old cathedral was absolutely beautiful.

A Boy's First Love

Sam Neyer is already confident in his career choice at age 12. In fact, the family farming business

harnessed Sam’s interest when he was only a toddler. "I want to be a farmer when I grow up," Sam said.

"I want to take my dad's job and expand the farm like he did."

Neyer Dairy Farms Inc. is now a third generation farm with all three locations active in work. The Neyers own

roughly 1,200 cattle and milk 400 and 600 respectively on each farm. Sam's main job is to feed the baby cattle and

clean each stall. Although he spends every day at the farm during the summer, as a 7th grader at Sacred Heart Academy in Mount Pleasant,

he is only able to work on weekends.

Although his maturity and life is different from many other 12 year olds, Sam is still a normal kid.

He plays video games, watches television and occasionally fights with his brother. What makes him different,

however, is that he already started his career and found his first love.

Welcome to the World, Baby!

I spent two weeks with the Neyer family developing the story in the post above. Although my final edit did not

focus on Jerry, I spent a lot of my time with him. One Tuesday afternoon, I received the phone call I had been hoping for.

"I have a birth coming," he said. "The water broke. It should be within the half hour."

My boyfriend had my truck, so I grabbed his keys and prayed he had enough gas to get me to the farm.

(He did. Barely. I ended up getting stranded afterwards, but that's beside the point.)

I ran to the back of the Neyer Dairy Farm Inc. and found the barn and the pregnant mother.

Jerry came around in his truck and prepared all the equipment. He made sure she was ready and induced labor.

Jerry comforted the mom as he pulled the chains attached to the calf.

She gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

I left the farm that day with a new appreciation for something. I'm not exactly sure I can describe it.

It was the first birth I have ever witnessed, after all. It was just as I expected in many ways- messy and painful looking.

But the love the new mother and Jerry had for the calf was beautiful.