When Andreia Guimarães Tavares and José Francisco Barros posed together in their uniforms, the photographs showed much more than a couple celebrating their 25 years together. Behind those images was a story of hard work, support, and shared dreams.
José works as a sanitation worker and, during his shifts, he would find books abandoned on the street and take them home so Andreia could study.
She dreamed of going to university, and those books eventually became one of the tools she used to prepare.
Andreia received a full scholarship to study law and, after graduating, passed the competitive exam that allowed her to become an officer in the Goiás Military Police.
The couple met when Andreia was just 14 years old and stayed together over the following decades.
She even tells of a curious coincidence: she says that, two years before meeting him, she had dreamed of the face of the man who would eventually become her husband.
The photographs of them together in their uniforms ended up perfectly representing the journey they had made: him, from his work as a sanitation worker; her, after becoming a captain; and the two of them, after 25 years of building a life together.