John Decker, Bob Moore, Christine Moore and Danny Sanchez. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
When Red Bank photographer Danny Sanchez lost his wife, Mary Yahara, to suicide in 2020, he fell into a despair those who have suffered such loss know all too well.
But his filmmaker friend John Decker recalls the moment “I started to see some life come back into him. I started to see some signs of hope.”
It came as Sanchez was attending grief counseling sessions at Stephy’s Place, a Red Bank non- profit that offers free support groups for those suffering from grief and loss.
In those sessions, Sanchez had latched onto – and drawn hope from – the story of Bob and Christine Moore of Fair Haven, whose son Jack had died by suicide in 2016 at age 19.
“I got to a spot where I felt I had been made whole and healed the best I could be,’’ Bob Moore recalled.
Sanchez was hoping to get to that place himself. As part of that journey, he was looking for ways to honor his late wife. When he heard Moore speak, he knew he had found it.
“When you spoke, it got my interest,” he told Moore during a recent sit down with redbankgreen. “I was looking for things that I could do. To tell your story – that’s how I’m going to honor her.”
Now, Sanchez and Decker have teamed up on a film documenting the Moores’ story, called “Life After Loss.”
It’s the first project of a new nonprofit venture, “Mary’s Garden Media,” which aims to create a series of films to serve as “therapeutic conduits” and assist in the healing process of those who have lost a loved one.
The film debut and public launch of Mary’s Corner Media will be held Tuesday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Vogel Theater at the Count Basie Center for the Arts. The public is invited to attend.
For the Moores as well as Sanchez and Decker, the film fulfills part of the mission they set for themselves in the wake of their loss.
Seated in Sanchez’s studio last week, Christine Moore recalled her last conversation with her son, who told her he was deeply depressed.
“I said, ‘you know buddy a lot of people feel the way you feel.’ And his response was, ‘then why doesn’t anybody talk about it? ‘And that has been my mission. We are going to talk about this.”
Tuesday’s film premiere is presented in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Monmouth County. Ticket information and details can be found here.
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