Is a picture worth a 1000 words/ dollars?

As a professional photographer I am often trying to justify the cost of photography. Why do professional images cost so much; are they worth it? On Sunday I went to a family reunion where my Aunt gave me a photograph of my mother I had never seen before. My Mom passed away when I was eight years old. I have only two photos of her; now three. I think it was the absence of photographs from my own childhood that sparked my intense interest in photography at an early age.
Fast forward to today. I recently paid over $1000 for a new television in our den. I had the exterior paint redone on the house at a cost of several thousand dollars. I bought my son a new computer for school; you guessed it, $1000. None of these things can compare to the value I place on this new found image of my mother taken before she had a dozen children and grew into the woman who passed far too soon from this world.
With every image I create, I hope that some day, long into the future, they spark warm memories and bright smiles for what was and what was captured in my lens.
My mom is the one on the left, the woman on the right is my Aunt Sadie who also passed many years ago.
Love you Mom.