I don’t often get too personal on here, but late last year our mom, Danell Westbrock, suddenly passed away… and today would have been her 65th birthday. It’s been tough reconciling what all this has meant for our friends and family when someone is lost when you know they’re not ready to go, but one thing that’s helped is thinking about the meaning behind this photo I stumbled across while going through her old albums.

When my mom was young she loved film photography, and during a roadtrip to Glacier National Park she snapped this photo of Avalanche Gorge along the Trail of the Cedars. I recognized it right away, even though I had only been there once as well—because I had unknowingly taken the same photo (except my photo was taken 41 years later). And realizing we get to enjoy the same places she enjoyed while living a full-life she would be proud of, sometimes even standing in each other’s foot prints, makes missing her on days like this a little easier.