When a loved one passes away, we often use photographs as a way of keeping that person's memory alive. One Ohio family took the process a step further, creating a unique set of photos that serves as both a touchstone of the past and a reminder of how life moves forward.
In 2011, 31-year-old schoolteacher Ali Nunery passed away from a rare form of lung cancer, leaving behind her husband Ben and a 1-year-old daughter named Olivia.
This November, after two years on "a rollercoaster of emotions," as Ben described it, he and Olivia were ready to move out of the Cincinnati home they'd shared with Ali. But before they left, Ben wanted a way to remember the happy times they'd shared in the house. So he asked his sister-in-law Melanie Pace, a professional photographer, to take photos of him and his now 3-year-old daughter in their home.
"I was just really looking for a way to say farewell to the house, and have some things that Olivia and I can have to...remember the house," Ben told TODAY.com. "When Ali and I got married, we closed on the house the day before our wedding, so we did wedding photos in the empty house."