"She’s such a blessing and makes me forget all of the pain that I go through – the suffering and sadness," said James Alvarez as he holds his daughter, Adalyn Rose.
In August this year Alvarez and his wife Yesenia Aguilar were taking a walk in Anaheim, California, when tragedy struck.
A woman driving under the influence of drugs hit the couple. Yesenia was eight months pregnant at the time. She died instantly.
“It just happened so fast,” Aguilar told Fox11.
“Hearing the screeching car lose control and then seeing the car go in our direction on the sidewalk. We closed our eyes and were ready for the impact. We were just bracing for the impact and mine never came. We turned around and I saw everything, I saw my wife. I know she was thinking of our daughter. I know she was just, ‘our daughter, daughter’.”
Adalyn Rose was delivered by emergency C-section and miraculously defied the odds. Now two months old, father and daughter have done their first photo shoot, something her mother had dreamed of.
“I hope people see her sweet little face and really think before they do something stupid and break families apart, because this little girl didn’t deserve it and Yesenia didn’t deserve it,” photographer Grisel Leyva, who also did the couple’s maternity photo shoot, told the television network.
Aguilar wanted to incorporate his late wife into the shoot, featuring her wedding veil, favourite flowers, and pictures.
The shoot has since gone viral, something both Aguilar and Leyva are happy about.