On June 28th, 2011 Dale R. Johnson died in a freak accident while working with an excavator to pull out a tree stump in his front yard. He was alone; the cause of death determined by medical professionals was a blunt trauma to the head and chest that broke his neck – he died instantly. Although we had recently divorced after fifteen years of marriage , we remained close and he was an integral part of my life. A celebration of life service will be held in Portland, Oregon on July 17th at 4pm – if you’d like to attend please contact me directly for details.
I have avoided speaking about my personal life in my business because I hadn’t felt it was appropriate, but I now feel compelled to share so many things I wished I’d said before. Dale was my biggest supporter, he helped establish my photography career and worked tirelessly behind the scenes. He had the patience of a saint, and was kind, spirited, adventurous, funny, creative and had an amazing capacity to care for others and love. He helped me focus on what was really important in life; beyond all the professional accolades or successes what I most cherish is the love he showed unconditionally and his ability to live life to the fullest. While I was driven and endlessly active, he balanced my energy with his calmness and ability to find peace in the stillness; he was my rock and he enabled me to become what I am today. I will forever be grateful to him for all has done and his spirit will be deeply missed by so many people whose lives he touched profoundly.
We kept a journal of our personal journey – our round the world trip from Oct 2000 to December 2001, which I’d recently archived in this blog (see archive entries by those dates). Below is a summary of a life well lived, details of moments behind the photographs I haven’t shared with many before now.
Dale in 1994, portrait I took right after he proposed on ferry en route to Victoria, Canada
Our wedding reception in Portland; this photo ended up on the cover of the Portland bridal guide book
In October of 2000 we quit our jobs and began a 14 month journey backpacking around the world. The first leg of the trip was riding our harley down highway 101 from Portland to LA.
Portrait of us riding the harley through wine country in Napa
