Judith Gibson (left) and Barbara DiBarnard share a tender moment after they were married in their home in Lincoln, Neb. on Friday, June 26, 2015. Barbara and Judith, who have been together for 27 years, were finally able to be legally apply for a marriage license in Nebraska following the U. S. Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage in all 50 states.

Having grown up with horses in Glenwood, Iowa, Edwin Johnson was happy to see Jewel, a 30-something-year-old Arabian horse who made a visit to his window with owner Sheila Carroll of Lincoln on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at Holmes Lake Rehabilitation & Care Center. They call it "window wellness," a visit to residents of assisted-living facilities who can't have visitors in the buildings because of COVID-19 precautions. "It's very moving," said Anna Wishart, a Lincoln resident and owner of horses, when they see the horses because it brings memories of a life they used to have on the farm. The expressions on their faces, seeing this cowboy ride up to the window, were worth it all, she said.

Five-year-old Brayden Ogorzolka of Aurora is enveloped by a frothy amalgam of mud and soap suds as he hits the bottom of the Slip-n-Slide during the Nebraska Sports Council's Mud Run at the Lancaster Event Center.

Tyrus Harris (second left) receives a kiss from his grandmother Patricia Johnson (left) as his mother Melodie Harris (second right) hugs his girlfriend Shacara Pierce at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. Harris, a senior at Omaha North High School who was shot three times a block from the school in March, received a surprise prom from family and friends.

The day after he turned 100, Harold “Shorty” Heins hopped out of his wheelchair, ready to tell war stories. And what he saw when the Army sent him to Europe is still so hot it can make him cry today, more than 70 years later. The war is still with him, just below the surface. He can still see the facial features of the survivors of the concentration camp near Ohrdruf -- and the bodies that were burned in trenches that, to the Butler County farm boy, looked like dry-weather silage bunkers. But he also remembers tender moments. Human moments. German soldiers surrendering their guns to him but begging to keep their family photos. (Photographed on a Graflex Crown Graphic with Polaroid Type 55 film)

Six-month-old Robert Bielski, Jr. stares at the menacing image of actor Clint Eastwood in the middle of a movie fight as it peers from his family's television set at home in Philadelphia.

Thirteen-year-old Nicole Coffey (left) of West Friendship gets surprised by a double volley of water from the hoses of Joe Ingegneri, 11 (top) of Mt. Airy, and Nick Boeh, 10 (right) of Glenwood as she attempts to clean her pigs in time for the market auction Wednesday night at the Howard County Fair.

A Native American man, who asked not to be identified, sleeps on the cold concrete of a chapel as the dawn light breaks on Route 87 in Whiteclay, Neb. Sheridan County residents defended Whiteclay's embattled beer stores, telling local leaders that shutting them down would "scatter" alcohol-related ills and lead to more drunk driving. The four stores sold the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer last year a few hundred yards south of South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, where liquor is banned but alcoholism is rampant.

Aspiring jazz trumpeter Sam Sturgeon, 13, of Lincoln is framed in the tuning slide of a fellow trumpeter as they play an arrangement of "Oye Como Va" during a Big Band class with Mark Benson in a rehearsal room in the Vance D. Rogers Fine Arts Center on the campus of Nebraska Wesleyan University. Thirty-eight students were participating in the Nebraska Jazz Camp, a five-day opportunity to works in groups and one-to-one with professional jazz musicians.

Newborn Stone Charles Daniel Haifley (second left) is wearing a blue sleeper, resting in the crook of his mother's arm. He was their biggest baby, she says. Their only baby who arrived early. His parents know why. “Because he needed to meet his brother.” On the last night of his earthly life, parents Kendra (left) and Damon brought his baby brother to the hospital to meet Silas (not shown) who was dying. They brought Roman (right), his older brother, too.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Hawke, of Lincoln, enjoys a moment with his daughter Brooklyn during a sending off ceremony for him and additional members of the Nebraska Army National Guard's Company G, 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion, based out of Lincoln, Nebraska.

As the Benediction is performed by Reverend Joe Ehrmann, James Weems III (right) looks up towards the sky as he is held by his father, Baltimore City police officer James Weems Jr. during Fallen Heroes Day at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. Weems' wife had been engaged to a Baltimore City police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1986.

Thirteen-year-old Hank Hughes of Seward, Neb. defeated all bubble gum blowers to take home the "state championship" trophy despite a gummy orb that popped at the Bubble Gum/Pie Eating contest at the bandshell on Thursday, July 4, 2019, during the 151st annual 4th of July Celebration in Seward.

Several silky strands of Canada geese flying in a "V" formation head southward under the contrails of passenger jet during a unseasonably warm day in Lincoln, Neb. on at Seacrest Field.

Portrait of Vince Brewer Jr., who's son Vinnie Brewer III, 29, of Pine Ridge was gunned down in the parking lot of the SuAnne Big Crow Youth Development Center on the Pine Ridge Reservation. "Even if you come from a good family, you had a good upbringing, there’s no guarantees — no guarantees here. It’s very easy for them to fall in with the wrong group," Vince says. “Choices. You always hear that, all the time. It’s about choices. And Vin made the wrong choice.”

Strategically positioned between two Jersey cows, Sean Mayer, 10 of Taneytown, Maryland aims a rubber band at a friend in the cow barn at the Howard County Fair.

Grinning from ear to ear, Makenzie Miller, 7 makes a dash into the arms of her stepsister Cathy Miller who just returned from a year-long tour of duty in Iraq on Thursday night. Cathy surprised Makenzie, a second grader at Fulton Elementary School, as she stepped off the school bus at their home.

Portrait of Bob Burianek of Lincoln, Neb. reflected in the driver side-view mirror of his 1928 Chevrolet National AB, a vehicle he parked in a barn in the 1950s and his family just had it restored for him on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018, by Derek Spitsnogle at Xotic Customs.

Terri Marti of Lincoln holds a high school photo of her father, Doug Marti, who took his own life in 1976. The 42-year-old father of four was plagued by mood swings and had threatened suicide before. He’d been through treatment for alcoholism twice, but the day before he died, he went to a bar. He bought a gun. Early the next morning, he left home and drove to the Villager Motel on O Street. He took off his glasses and his rings and his Rolex and set them on the dresser. He wrote notes to his children. Then he was gone.

An embarrassed Corey Taylor (center), 12, stands by as Panthers coach Melvin Jordan (right) scrutinizes his haircut at practice. "Where'd you leave your hair," Jordan asked. "At the barbershop," answered Taylor. To which the coach replied, "You mean you actually paid someone to clean your head?"