Stories That Stayed With Me — Part 2
Some sessions feel like a full circle moment.
This one did.
This is one of my best friends from high school, Kathryn, with her two beautiful babies Rex and Gwennie, and her sweet mom Margaret.
Kathryn and I met nearly 30 years ago, which somehow feels impossible to say out loud. Thirty years of growing up, building lives, becoming mothers ourselves, walking through seasons of life we never could have imagined when we were just girls trying to figure out who we were.
Life has taken us in different directions over the years, as it often does. We don’t see each other nearly as often as we would like. The busy seasons of adulthood have a way of doing that.
But some friendships never fade.
They don’t require constant closeness or daily conversations.
They simply pick right back up the moment you’re together again.
And that’s exactly how it is with Kathryn.
From the very beginning, she has always had this warmth and openness about her that just pulls people in. The kind of person who makes you feel instantly comfortable. Like you could sit down and talk with her for hours about anything at all and she would listen with her whole heart.
She has always had that beautiful light in her.
And seeing her now as a mother… loving her babies so deeply, so naturally… it is one of the most beautiful things to witness.
Because the truth is, that kind of love doesn’t just appear out of nowhere.
It comes from somewhere.
And if you spend even a few minutes around Margaret, you can see exactly where Kathryn learned it.
Margaret is one of the most generous, kind-hearted, loving people you could ever meet. The kind of person who quietly pours love into the people around her without expecting anything in return.
The kind of person who makes you feel cared for in ways big and small.
I still have a quilt Margaret made for my very first baby back in 2005.
And it’s something I will forever cherish.
Because it wasn’t just a quilt.
It was a piece of love she created with her own hands for someone she cared about.
That’s who she is.
And seeing her sitting there with Rex and Gwennie in her arms… watching Kathryn standing beside her… it felt like watching love travel through generations.
The roots.
The legacy.
The quiet ways love gets passed down from one generation to the next.
We weren’t even expecting rain that day.
But sometimes the unexpected moments end up being the most beautiful ones.
The road was wet, the air cool, and Kathryn held an umbrella over them while the kids laughed and played. Rex running up and down the road with that carefree little boy energy, Gwennie toddling along with that sweet curiosity toddlers have.
And Margaret sitting there smiling, soaking in every second of it.
It was simple.
It was real.
And it was beautiful.
Standing there behind my camera, I found myself thinking about time.
About how quickly it moves.
About how one day Rex and Gwennie will grow up and look back at these photographs.
And they won’t just see a rainy day on a country road.
They’ll see their little selves running down that road.
They’ll see their mom smiling beside them.
They’ll see their grandmother holding them close.
And maybe they won’t remember every detail of that day.
But they will see the love that surrounded them.
The kind of love that quietly shapes a childhood…
the kind that becomes part of who you are.
The kind that stretches across generations.
And that is why photographs matter so much.
Because one day they become more than pictures.
They become pieces of a family’s story.
This session stayed with me because it held all of that.
Nearly 30 years of friendship.
Three generations of love.
And a rainy afternoon that somehow became even more beautiful because of it.
Kathryn, Margaret, Rex & Gwennie
Stories That Stayed With Me continues next Sunday morning.
