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Three young women are filmed on the beach left and right. It was a sunny day in the early 1980s. Their arms are wrapped around each other. They are snacking with potato chips, dipping into the English channel and stretching in a plaid picnic blanket.
“If you look at the photos, it really symbolizes who we are as sisters,” Pamela Cook told CNN Travel today. “We’re 3. I’m laughing like that. That’s a photo I’ve had for a long time.”
Cook spent years with two sisters, Tracey Waygood and Elaine McCartney, saying that they needed to replicate a photograph taken at Castle Beach, Cornwall, southwest England, around 1980.
The three sisters are nearby and yet they still visit Castle Beach together, spending a long time laughing, swimming and chatting together.
Waygood and McCartney always agreed that Cook was right, that it felt fun and accomplished.
They didn’t get round at all until last summer when the three sisters finally recreated the shots by collecting bikini, beach blankets and prerequisite snack packets.
Three women in the late 60s and early 70s now thought that even on cloudy days there was no time like they do today.
This sentiment was heightened by the fact that McCartney was diagnosed with dementia several years ago.
“We know that time is precious, so we make the most of it,” Waygood says. “We wanted to make sure that was. It was really important to us.”
Castle Beach is located in the coastal town of Falmouth. The three sisters grew up in the area and spent the summer on the beach with their siblings’ gang.
“It’s always been a big group of us,” recalls Weigoo. “We’re a big family and then we’ve always had cousins and other friends. And there’s always a good crowd on the beach.”
My family has never been abroad on vacation.
“Six brothers. Mom and Dad’s working class. That was our holiday,” says Cook.
But the food, Waygood, McCartney never fancyed about the beaches of Spain. I never felt like they were missing out on a trip to France. The incredible coastal beauty at the Cornwall gateway and their large, loving family are not led by.
“We didn’t look for anything else,” Cook says.
Today, McCartney still lives around a 15-minute drive from Castle Beach, but Cook and Waygood live a few hours away. The other two siblings live in Canada, but their family is nearby via video calls and social media.
When Cook, McCartney and Waygood mentioned plans to recreate beach photos from the 1980s, their loved ones didn’t think much about it. The trio often do “a little crazy” things when they come together. For example, every Christmas, sisters sing to their own favorite Christmas song and send the resulting confusion to their loved ones (“There’s no wine” jokes Tracy)
Upon arriving at Castle Beach on the day of the recreated photos, the sisters made their first priority to take a dip in the ocean. They noticed the cloudy weather and wanted to make sure they enjoyed the icy, yet cheerful plunge. It was cold, but it was a lot of fun.
Back on the coast, the sisters set up a recreated photo. Soon they realized their accuracy was slightly off, but they were not disappointed.
“There were no notes about wearing a bikini of the same colour,” Cook says with a laugh. “I don’t have a blue bikini.”
And, despite the coastline changing over the years, women were able to easily identify the exact location where the original photo was taken.
“The beach cafe that once there was washed away by one of the storms, so we moved and moved a little, but the railing was still there so we wanted to sit in the exact same place,” Waygood said.
The sisters placed a plaid beach blanket – not the same as in the 1980s, but another way was found in her closet.
Next step: Find a photographer. The sisters thought this was easy, but there were no obvious candidates looking around the beach.
“It was a bit cooler as the weather was changing and the rain started to fall, so there weren’t many people on the beach,” recalls Waygood. “So I said to Pam, “Why don’t we ask someone from the cafe?”
The beach cafe featured in a shot from the 1980s has long disappeared, but Castle Beach has its current cafe. Aptly named Castle Beach Cafe is a seasonal kiosk that sells English seaside essentials such as hot drinks, sausage rolls and chocolate brownies.
Cook was lined up at the kiosk and asked the woman behind the counter if she could help recreate the old photos, rather than ordering hot chocolate. Cook showed her a shot of the 1980s on her phone for reference.
The woman behind the counter, university student Jess Roydell, was pleased with the prospect of helping with the exploration of the photograph, and quickly turned his attention.
Loydell carefully studied the original photo, overseeing the woman, confirming that McCartney’s arm was wrapped around the sisters, and that the packet was in exactly the grip.
But when it comes to their smiles, the sisters didn’t need much direction. Capturing the joys of the original photograph came naturally.
Cook says his goal has always been to “make it fun.”
“I don’t know what we were laughing at when the original photo was taken, but when the last photo was taken, we were still laughing,” she says.
Cook, Waygood and McCartney were excited by the resulting shot. They thanked Roydel for returning to Castle Beach Café. The sisters spent a little longer lying on the beach, recalling fun times together and creating new memories.
When they returned to their respective homes, the sisters shared photos on Facebook.
“Our brothers love it, and we’re really proud of it,” Waygood says. “Our ne and nie in Canada shared it, “These are our crazy aunties of us in the UK.”
Staff at Castle Beach Cafe reached out and asked if they could post the shots on their social media pages. The sisters were happy to agree. It was then not just family and friends as the recreated photos spread throughout the internet and were picked up by local news outlets.
The sisters were flooded with positive feedback, suggesting that many people were inspired to recreate their favorite photos. Others tagged their sisters and posted heart emojis.
“The comments were inspiring for us,” Cook says.
And scattered amongst the positivity was the inevitable opponents of Cook, Waygood and McCartney, who held their negativity to their shoulders.
“It’s just social media,” says Cook. “But we are very comfortable on our skin. We didn’t worry about going to the beach as we were bikini.”
Waygood, Cook and McCartney have never taken a photo in pursuit of fame, or in the hopes of people all over the world seeing it on their news feed or hitting “I didn’t brush my hair.”
The trio say they did it themselves to celebrate the sisterhood, lasting relationships and joy of the day together on the beach.
Waygood and Cook say it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what they have intimately and accurately their sister relationship.
As Cook says, it feels like it’s “very natural” and has a relationship defined by “a lot of fun, lot of laughter.”
“It’s not until others say, ‘You’re so lucky to have your closeness and have each other,” Waygood says.
Still, in recent years, McCartney’s dementia has made the sisters highly value their bond from a new perspective. Their relationship is still defined by lightness and joy. But they are more aware that there will be nothing forever.
And that’s one of the reasons they’re so happy to have two photos. Let the sense of joy remain no matter what happens in the future.
“We just wanted to capture the moment,” Cook says.
“Catch that moment, for us,” adds Waygood. “And we did it, and it’s great. We have us. We’re making the three of us smile on the beach.”
If others enjoy seeing the two photos or get inspiration, it’s an unexpected heartwarming bonus for the sisters.
Waygood’s advice for those who want to follow in their footsteps and recreate their favorite photos is, “Don’t wait for perfection.
“Maybe tomorrow isn’t there,” she says.
As for Cook, she’s now building two shots in her home. They always make her smile.
“What I liked when I saw the two photos was that it wasn’t perfect, if not accurate. It captured what I wanted to capture.
