My dear friend comes over early for a walk and talk in the woods, and my daughter joins us too. Rain, early rain, has stopped. This friend and I have raised our daughters, best friends, together. There are things we never would have talked about in front of them, and now we do. Now, when we're together, we're all friends, friends listening to friends. Women who know each other very well and want, every day, to know each other even better. Friendship can be fierce: fiercely protective. We take care of each other's emotional needs. Tender, we are, and fierce too, about believing in each other's best nature.

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar unless otherwise attributed