For years National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore worked far away from home—documenting the astonishing wildlife of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park or scrambling up the three tallest peaks in Great Britain or getting too close to grizzly bears in Alaska. His wife, Kathy, stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska, and took care of the kids. “He never wanted to change diapers or be a stay-at-home dad,” she says.
But in 2005, on the day before Thanksgiving, Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer. The cancer sentenced her to seven months of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation treatments, and two operations. So Joel Sartore had no choice: With three kids ages 12, 9, and 2, he couldn’t travel for the stories that were the mainstay of his career. Of that time, he says now, “I…