Photographic Memory: Exhaustion and elation moments after childbirth

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Gazette photographer John Mahoney took this {photograph} of his spouse, Jocelyne, with the couple’s firstborn mere moments after Darryl Mahoney entered the world early on the morning of Feb. 3, 1982, on the Montreal Normal Hospital.

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The obstetrician had positioned him on Jocelyne’s stomach even earlier than the umbilical twine was minimize and, as is evident from this wonderful picture, she was overcome with emotion. She had been in labour for 23 hours and was experiencing “exhaustion as a lot as elation,” as John put it.

He was seated proper subsequent to the supply desk, “all gowned up,” capturing black-and-white movie with a single lens connected to the digicam.

“I contemplate that one of the best image I’ve ever taken,” he mentioned. Different moms, on viewing the picture, have informed him that the picture moved them to tears.

sschwartz@postmedia.com