valerie jarvis: goat farmer, cheesemaker, mother of ten

I spent much of the summer in Concord hanging out at a local farm, getting to know Valerie Jarvis, who is one heck of a driven lady. The story ran in the Monitor yesterday, so now I'm free to blog.

Thanks to all who helped me agonize over the visual and written edits. Your input and support were invaluable, not just with this story, but throughout the summer.


Valerie Jarvis has always been, to use her own description, "a person of odd choices." Labor coach. Licensed pilot. Home-schooling mother of 10. And most recently, goat farmer and cheesemaker.

Fifteen years after her family acquired its first goat - a birthday gift from Jarvis to her then-husband - she continues to perfect the craft of making cheese. But now she has a hundred goats, and her Gilmanton Ironworks business, Heart Song Farm, is thriving. (To read the full story, see the Concord Monitor article)

"i feel like i'm starving to death"

One of the last frames from Concord this summer. I've never come in contact with someone who has pancreatitis before. I stayed a long time at her home, just talking. She's a great lady having a terrible time, but I'm really glad I met her. I hope so much that her surgery gives her a life back.

Photojournalism can be such a strange combination of poignancy and joy...the poignancy of feeling for someone as they deal with struggle, and the joy of being able to admire their courage through that kind of struggle. Being a witness to courage like that is what keeps me addicted.


Cindy Flynn wipes a tear from her eye while resting at home after work on Friday, August 12, 2011. Flynn was diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis in 2000. Eating food makes her very sick, so she uses a feeding tube. "My pancreas doesn't like food," she explained. "So (if I eat) it gnaws. (But without food) I feel like I'm starving to death." She is hoping her upcoming surgery on September 24 at the University of Minnesota Medical Center will allow her to adopt a more normal life. The surgery will take out her pancreas, spleen, and part of her intestines and possibly part of her stomach and will render her immediately diabetic, but could take away her pancreatic pain. "Hopefully I'll wake up and say, 'Oh my God, the pancreas pain is gone," Flynn said.


Cindy readies her feeding tube at home on Friday, August 12, 2011. She wears the feeding tube in a small Harley Davidson backpack for about 12 hours a day, the time it takes to empty three cans of Promote, a high-protein solution which is her only nourishment.

You can read some about Cindy in Ray Duckler's article for the Monitor.