The story behind this photo is years in the making.

This little hand gesture was created between these two siblings over 2 decades ago. It was done when greeting each other or as we said goodbyes. It was something we used to cheer us up in moments of sadness or make us laugh during tense moments. It was how we waved to each other as we drove off to college.

Over the years, no matter our mood, this little hand gesture is how we made each other smile.

Being 10 years apart, our relationship was different than other siblings. I came home from college and had lunch with him at elementary school. He was still a teenager when he stood at the alter on my wedding day. When I visited him at his fraternity tailgate, I was 9 months pregnant. I had three kids by the time I stood at the alter at his own wedding.

We’ve done a great job at staying close despite the years between us. A bond we have each made a priority. So when he asked me to take this picture with him on his wedding day, I lost it.

Thank God for photoshop skills because I was sobbing happy tears when this photo was snapped. In this moment, it was just us. Just two siblings sharing an inside joke, and all the memories of the past two and a half decades came flooding back all at once. And I simply couldn’t hold it together any longer.

I simply lost it.

I cried happy tears as I walked towards him at the end of the aisle on his wedding day, and he lovingly whispered to me, “pull it together, Sis.” But I couldn’t pull it together because I was just so happy and proud to be his sister. Proud I got to watch him grow into this man standing there waiting for his beauty of a wife. And just so happy to be adding a sister to our bond.

So this little hand gesture, while so simple and silly and sweet, symbolizes so so much.

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Photo credit: Fulleylove Photography