Yesterday I saw two stunning photos being shared on Facebook that moved me to tears. The photos were taken by Kate Murray, a photographer based in Florida, of an unnamed friend who had been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer halfway through her pregnancy. According to Kate’s post, after going through chemotherapy and a mastectomy of her left breast, this miracle baby boy was induced at 36 weeks to allow his mother to receive more cancer treatment.
These photos were taken of that magical moment when her son took to her breast for the very first time. This radiant mother fights back the tears as despite the odds, despite everything she has been through, despite everything she has lost, she is able to nourish her son. I know I had tears streaming down my face.
I was tremendously moved by those photographs, and I knew you would be too. So I shared them with you on my Facebook page. Apparently, well over 100,000 other Facebook users felt the same way. I think this speaks to our shared experience of motherhood, bravery in the face of fear and pain, and the triumph of the human spirit.
I wanted to know what you thought, what personal battles you were fighting, what inspiration you might have gotten from these images.
Today when I visited my Facebook page, I couldn’t find those photos anymore. “Strange,” I thought, as I scrolled through my timeline. “That’s odd, I’ll just check the photographer’s page and reshare them.” But when I went to Kate Murray Photography‘s Facebook page, it was gone too.
The link to the photos themselves, shared on other news sites, was gone.
Has Facebook done it again? Have they closed Kate’s page and deleted these pictures because they were obscene? Even though they explicitly state in their community standards:
If so, Facebook got it wrong. So very, very wrong.
This is not obscene. As Kate Murray wrote before the post mysteriously disappeared, “This is the definition of strength, love, and pure raw beauty.”
I would really like to know what happened as well.
I shared these photos as well. 2 of the most powerful and humbling images that I have seen in a very long time. I am really disappointed that they have disappeared from my timeline – they are a beautiful reminder that one can find joy and strength even where it would seem like despair would overcome.
I hope Kate’s page is reinstated. Her photography was beautiful.
When I started reading this, I thought the woman was missing. I am glad it is only the pictures. But, I do agree with you about Facebook taking this pictures down. It is just wrong.
This is such an awesome story, heartbreaking and joyful all in one, and for Facebook to remove it is just wrong, but it only takes that one ignorant person who probably didn’t even read the story, just seen the pictures, anyways I loved the story and the pictures!!!
I shared this post because it is so profoundly moving – I’d like to know who made the decision to delete it, and what their reason possibly could have been.