When she is sad: 

Ask her to dance. Take her hands and pull her up off the ground. She is fluid like water, like the wind and rain. Watch her twirl, round and round, as though she were a tornado. 

Sing her a song. She will rest her head on your chest and laugh. ‘You can’t even sing’ she will say, but do not stop. Do not stop until she is begging for your silence with her lips on yours in muffled gasps. 

Tell her a story: that time when you were five and fell into a pond and almost drowned. Tell her you are so glad a passerby dived in and saved your life because otherwise you would never have met her. 

Sit in silence and trace the veins in her neck with your tongue until she sighs and whispers ‘you are keeping me alive.’ Say that she is doing just fine on her own but hold her a little closer and tighter anyway; she needs it. 

“It’s okay. It’s okay to be sad.” Sometimes these are the only words you need. Pepper her tear stained cheeks with kisses and say “ it’s okay. I’ll be here. I’ll always be here.

Photographer: Rudy Ossona
Model: Mara Brova