It all started when Barbara Darling noticed how frequently tired her 17-year-old daughter, Zoe, was after school. Attributing her daughter’s increasing habit of falling asleep when she’d get home to the typical teenage grind, Barbara didn’t worry too much, but still took Zoe in to have her vitals tested just in case. The labs were normal.
After a few weeks, Zoe woke up one day with sore spots on her shoulders and found a lump on the lower left part of her neck. The lump turned out to be a lymph node. More of similar sizes were discovered nearby, so a biopsy was scheduled.
A week after Christmas, it was confirmed that Zoe had stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“My heart just broke for them,” says photographer Maris Ehlers. Maris had taken Zoe’s senior portrait photos that year and was one of the first people Barbara contacted after the diagnosis; she wanted copies of Zoe’s senior photos for her CaringBridge website (a virtual center of connection for Zoe’s family, friends and other well-wishers as she wades through her journey.)
Shortly after the revelation, Maris was struck with the idea to photograph Zoe again: “This is a phase in Zoe’s life that you should consider documenting with pictures,” she explains of her suggestion to Barbara.
A Symbol of Hope
Hair loss is an almost inevitable part of the chemotherapy process. Knowing this didn’t make it any easier for Zoe. Barbara shares that as a teenage girl, Zoe’s hair was a defining feature, so losing it was more frightening than the illness itself.
“Her hair was hurting,” says Barbara, who explains that chemotherapy patients often have this sensation when experiencing the loss of hair.
After just one treatment, Zoe’s hair was coming out in chunks. She decided it was time to take it off and asked her mom to be the one to shave it. Barbara admits that the request made her feel sick.
“She wanted me to do it because she didn’t figure her dad could do it.”
As the first locks of hair fell to the ground, Zoe’s father, Brad, told Barbara to stop.
On the ground lay a lock of hair shaped like a heart—a small symbol of hope for the Darling family during this dark time. “It was the strangest thing because it was the first chunk of hair that fell on the floor,” Barbara says through tears. “It just signified what we were going through together.” After that their mood changed.
“We started laughing,” she says.
Fighting Back
“We were nervous,” says photographer Maris Ehlers of the atmosphere at Zoe Darling’s new photoshoot.
Barbara was also nervous. Until that day, doctors and immediate family were the only ones who had seen her daughter.
Having met Zoe when she was healthy, Ehlers wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
So it was pretty shocking to everyone when Zoe walked in the studio, said “hi,” and took off her wig. She got down to business, shot the series of photos with the hope that she could help others through their own difficult journeys.
“Everyone was emotional except for her,” Maris adds with a laugh. But that’s Zoe Darling for you—a sweet, humble Canadian-born teenager with a love of dancing and a zen-like positivity that amazes everyone.
“It’s been a really powerful thing,” Maris says, reflecting on Zoe’s photos.
A Show of Support
From the start, it’s been nothing but remarkable support from all over the world. More than 1200 messages of support fill the pages of Zoe’s CaringBridge guestbook, a “Glee Cabaret Night” concert was held in her honor at her former school in Ontario where she was presented with an award of inspiration, and blue lights for Zoe shine on the doorsteps of households all over the world.
The Darlings’ neighbor, DeAnne Koppendrayer, changed the lightbulb on her front porch from the typical white to blue (Zoe’s favorite color), after the diagnosis. Shortly thereafter, the entire neighborhood followed suit to show Zoe she wasn’t alone. Within a few months, word got out to relatives, friends and even strangers everywhere from Canada to Australia.
“Until Zoe gets a clean bill of health,” says Koppendrayer, “everyone keeps their blue lights shining”.
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“CaringBridge has been a huge savior,” says Barbara Darling. The family is so grateful to the site that photographer Maris Ehlers has begun to use photos documenting Zoe, as a way to help raise money for the nonprofit organization, which aims to help families and friends connect during a health crisis.
To learn more about CaringBridge, visit caringbridge.org.
To see more photos of Zoe, go to Maris Ehler's photo blog.
