A Fall River photographer who wanted to memorialize her grandmother on her birthday recently held a photoshoot for other seniors at a nursing home.
Megan Rego, 36, said six years ago during the pandemic, she and her grandmother, Maria Olivia Correia, had taken a drive to the beach.
During the trip, Rego, who was driving, suffered a panic attack but didn’t want her grandmother to know what was happening.
A camera she had recently purchased was in her back seat.
“So I pulled over and as a distraction I was like,’ Let’s get out here, I’ll take your picture,'” said Rego. “It was like woosh, like, all the panic went away. It was the wildest thing, I got so happy and that’s the picture that I took. That’s my first photo.”
A Fall River photographer who wanted to memorialize her grandmother on her birthday recently held a photoshoot for other seniors at a nursing home.
For as long as Rego can remember, she has always been extremely close with her grandmother.
She was a proud Portuguese woman from Nordeste Sao Miguel whom she called Vavu.
As a child, the pair took many trips to nearby nursing homes to visit her other grandmother, whom her family helped take care of.
“Then when I was 25, she was my landlord. I moved to the third floor and she was on the first floor,” said Rego. “I saw her every day of my life. She was a part of my everyday life.”
Rego and Correia became best friends after that.
Rego often filmed the pair on TikTok, sharing funny videos and photos with the world so that they could experience the same joy she had while with Correia.
Megan Rego and her grandmother. (Megan Rego)
“She was very sassy and spunky,” said Rego. “She was a very humble woman who worked super hard, very family oriented, but she didn’t have a great life. But, I feel like as time when on with her grandchildren she started living.”
Rego said having developed a passion for photography, she had always loved the cosmetic side of things too which she shared with her grandmother.
“I did her nails every two weeks for years then I started doing her hair,” she said. “It would be a random Tuesday and I would be like, ‘Let’s do a photoshoot. I would have her get her best dress on, I would do her hair and makeup and we would take photos. She loved it but she was also helping me. I think that’s how she saw it too.”
Eventually, Rego built a business around her photography Megan Rego Photography.
She opened a studio in New Bedford.
She has become extremely popular and her work is beautiful.
One day three years ago, she had been driving to a photoshoot when her cousin called her to tell her that her 87-year-old grandmother had passed away.
To honor her memory, that same year, she collected donations throughout the community and donated items to a local nursing home.
Megan Rego, 36,{ }and her friends spent a day at a local nursing home, pampering its female residents with makeovers and hair styling before having them pose for a fun photoshoot. (WJAR)
“She would go to nursing homes everyday four-five times a day with her friends they had this little group and they would do Portuguese prayer service,” said Rego.
Rego had tagged along a few times and saw the difference that her grandmother’s presence made for people who had no one.
Following that effort, each year on her grandmother’s birthday, she would gift a free photoshoot to someone who wanted to take pictures with their grandparents, and offer them to others at discounted prices.
She calls them Olivia Sessions.
“It’s like people only focus on newborns, and first birthdays, and weddings, but if you have a grandparent and you’re close to them, it’s like this person has been in your life since you were born and they have been in your life your whole life. Maybe you’re close to them and you know how time works, and that’s supper important too, so I try to really push that so that’s what I was doing for her birthday.”
This year though, Rego wanted to try something different.
“This year I was like I want to do more, for more people,” she said.
A Fall River photographer who wanted to memorialize her grandmother on her birthday recently held a photoshoot for other seniors at a nursing home. (Megan Rego Photography)
Rego decided to reach out to staff at the Catholic Memorial Skilled Nursing Home and asked if she could bring some of her friends for a day of pampering and photoshoot fun.
Shana Viveiros and Tanya Cabral who are freelance artists volunteered their services.
Shaunna Carreiro, a bridal freelance makeup artist did too, as did Chelsea Medeiros from Bella Moda Hair Studio and Michelle Oliveira from Salon812.
Alda, Oliveira’s mom, also came for support.
“We had a makeup station, and a hairdressing station, and as soon as they came in we had music playing and we went right to it,” she said. “Their energy and the way they came alive, it was so nice to see. It was beautiful.”
Rego took photos of the 16 ladies who received free hair and makeup too.
A Fall River photographer who wanted to memorialize her grandmother on her birthday recently held a photoshoot for other seniors at a nursing home. (Megan Rego Photography)
She documented everything using videos from the day and her phone to create short highlight videos that she shared on her social media pages.
“A place like that, it can be very depressing and somber but that room wasn’t. It was very happy, very positive,” she said. “There should be more days like this for them. They’re in there and they feel forgotten and they don’t feel seen.”
Rego’s videos of the event have captured the attention of tens of thousands of people online.
She said her grandmother would have loved to have been a part of it too, and she is so appreciative of everyone who pitched in to help memorialize her birthday.
“I brought her glasses, which she always wore, and I had them wear them so I made a series where they’re all wearing her glasses so it was like a little touch of her being there that day,” said Rego. “I just love the fact that like it all kind of came together and I could use something that I love to do, to help someone else. It just made me really happy.”