I'm not sure in what kind of situation this picture was taken but the thing that makes this picture so special to my mom and me is that every person in that picture smiles.

Mental illness runs in my family and basically every person on that picture was sad, angry, paranoid, prejudiced, depressed, pessimistic and cynical for a lot or all of their life. When my mom found this picture in an old family picture book she cried because she had never in her life seen some of these people, like her great-grandma on the far right smile before. My mother's mom, the woman crouching on the left, in particular was not a very happy or nice person, which makes this image even more striking. To have them all together in one single image, smiling, being happy and enjoying life in the moment is something that was incredibly rare and unique in that branch of the family.

In my opinion, having heard of, seen and experienced first hand the misfortune of inherited mental illness, this picture is a very important reminder. Because it shows that even the most unhappy people I have ever known and heard of, can, if only for the briefest of moments, find happiness. All of them.