This is my best friend. These are her people. Her stand by her side through thick and thin husband. Her three wildly different and wonderful girls. This is them at their place.

As a little girl, she would visit this beach every summer with her mother and father and brother and various other family members. On the cusp of young womanhood, she lost her mother. And so the visits to this beach stopped. Until she became a mother of her own. With two little girls and her hubby by her side, they returned to the place that had meant so much to her as a young girl. And they've gone every year since.

I've asked a handful of times over the years to photograph them in this place...but...it just wasn't right. Until this summer. When my dear friend suffered another loss. The loss of another woman, a friend, a sister in motherhood, with whom she spent countless summers on this beach. With their husbands and kids and sand and seafood. It was with this loss that she understood how very necessary it was to have photographic memories of her with her people in this place that is woven into her heart. I happened to be in Wellfleet with my own family when she asked if I could come and make some images of her with her family who I truly love so, so much.

All the time I say I love my job, and it's true, I do. But editing these photos I found myself crying. Yes, it's a job. Yes, I love it. But these girls will have these photos years from now, when maybe Maria and I are long gone. And they will remember this place...that is woven into their hearts as well. And there is so much weight to that.