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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Dale Berning Sawa

My mother’s best advice: keep short accounts – in other words, forgive easily

A photograph of Dale and her mother at Dale's wedding. Standing beneath a tree, they are smiling and looking in the same direction, but not at the camera
‘I love how our smiles are so peaceful’ … Dale on her wedding day with her mother. Composite: Guardian Design; supplied image

My favourite photograph of my mother, Linda, and I was taken at my wedding. I’m not sure we realised we were being photographed. Two artist friends were walking around with film cameras, shooting the kind of things they knew that Hiraki, my husband, and I would like. My mother and I are standing shoulder to shoulder, under a young tree. I love how the shapes of our necklines are like a sartorial call and response, how our smiles are so peaceful, how we are both looking outwards.

It’s not that this picture captures a specific moment. Rather, it taps into a certain quality of my mother’s love that is timeless, unbound by circumstance or context. She has always loved my sister and I exactly like this: gently, spaciously and alongside.

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