We talk a lot about words in this column. We don’t talk enough about images. Today, I find I just can’t stop looking at the images of Heidi and Gina Nortonsmith taken by staff photographer Melanie Stetson Freeman 20 years apart. 

The story is about the landmark 2004 Massachusetts court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. The images contain more than words could ever say. They are radiant portraits of stability and trust and patience and such boundless joy. I look at them, and I feel I have shared some small fraction of two extraordinary lives.