My thoughts are with you, Cynthia Edwards.

Cynthia has known me ever since my parents hired her a few times to sit the growing Burnham clan on Gilead Street. She lived close by on Atlantic Avenue so she was handy.

Cynthia later married John Edwards and a couple of years after I became editor of this newspaper, he joined the crew as the staff photographer.

From the 1990s to about 2012, John took thousands upon thousands of photographs for the newspaper – many award-winning ones, too. He and I sometimes shared assignments, especially when it came to shooting championship games – he on one side of the field and me on the other, or he on one end of the court and me on the other.

Not only did he take photographs but he spent hours making prints in our former darkroom. He provided one of the projectors while the company provided another, and the developer for the final print product. He was adept at cranking out prints so they could be scanned (by former Harbor Print Shop owner Jim Behringer and assistant Harold Orne) and made into pmts (photo magnetic transfers). The pmts were then waxed and rolled onto the layout pages.

The tedious jobs included making contact sheets so I could view the quality of the photographs before giving them to John to make prints. John also took it upon himself to catalog the negatives/contact sheets in monthly binders. Shelves were built in the darkroom and we still have them for future use.

Both he and I were glad to see digital photography evolve. It cut down our hours and as we moved from hands-on layout of the paper to online layout, the cost savings were great, too.

John retired and, over the past five years, came into ill health. But Cynthia reminded me yesterday that he kept photography in his daily thoughts, using his iPad to take shots outside his home.

John died Aug. 24. He will forever be in my thoughts as one of the major contributors to this newspaper for about 20-plus years and for being a friend.

Rest in peace, John.