Suasti Lye Photography

 

This past weekend I went to a charity event to celebrate the life of a lady named Juliet. I didn’t know her personally, but her story touched me. One of her friend’s, Michelle, reached out to me to see if I could capture some images of the dinner they were hosting at Oxwell and Co.

I had been asked to do a family photo shoot for Juliet in January who was fighting stage 4 cancer along with having a little daughter, Elsa, who was born prematurely and with cerebral palsy. I followed up in January about the date of the shoot to be sadly told she had already passed away. I had never met Juliet but had seen a few photographs of her and her warm smile made me sad that I wasn’t able to capture some family time for their memories.

 

The event this past weekend had already been planned and went ahead to raise money to help alleviate the medical bills that had been piling up and to support her husband Simon and little Elsa.

I arrived to a beautiful dinner upstairs along with loads of pink and white balloons. The guests were all kind and generous souls. Some were friends of Simon and Juliet’s and others were there to support a family they had never met but whose story had struck a chord with them. They had an amazing dinner upstairs at Oxwell and Co and downstairs canapés were served before the evening went on to a lively auction. Oxwell and Co generously donated all proceeds towards Simon and Elsa from the evening and Nigel Cummings was an outstanding auctioneer on the night. The target for the evening was $50, 000 and by the end of the evening they had  amazingly raised $130,000.

I spoke to Michelle and she told me that her husband Olly went to Bath University in the UK with Simon along with three other friends who just all happened to live in Singapore. The small team got together and decided to organise a fundraiser and they all worked hard to put it together. What a kind act. Michelle shared with me that Juliet was just a really lovely person and was ever hopeful that she would get better. She said that Juliet always left her feeling great whenever they had spent time together and that she would say “as soon as I am better we will go for that brunch at the Capella!”

When Juliet tragically passed away just two weeks before the event they almost thought, perhaps, they should cancel the event. Fortunately a timely meeting with Nigel the auctioneer to discuss the event turned into a two hour pep talk and he said it was even more important to go ahead with the event and he gave them the confidence to push ahead. The event was changed to become a celebration of Juliet’s life and an evening to raise funds for Elsa’s ongoing medical care.

Michelle just radiated kindness and I wanted to say sorry to her to for losing her friend so I thanked her for organizing such a great event. Her response to me, with a big smile was that if it wasn’t her organizing it, in any other case, it would have been Juliet who would have done it for someone else.

I was honored to be able to be there to take some photos. I asked if I could meet Simon, however I was told he was in London organizing the funeral.

These images are for him and Elsa, so they may see what an amazing group of friends and supporters they have.

In celebration of the life of Juliet.

 

 

 

 

The following are images in order of the night….