Nora Curtwright has traditionally taken her first-day-of-school photo with her older brother, Brady — a sweet ritual that began in the family even before she was born, when Brady was by himself.

“It was what we have always done,” Nora, now 9, tells PEOPLE.

But she also knew this year’s photo would be different: In December, Brady was killed in Arkansas while out with friends after another vehicle crossed into incoming traffic and crashed into his car. He was 14.

“They were hit head-on by a driver who was having a medical emergency,” explains Nora and Brady’s mom, Ashley Curtwright. (The driver also died.)

“We are approaching nine months,” Ashley says. “It feels impossibly long and impossibly short all at once.”

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As the new school year loomed, the family faced another dilemma: Nora didn’t feel ready to start fourth grade at Manila Middle School, and she was worried about who would be in her picture.

“I told her the only thing I knew to say at the time: ‘Baby, we are not there yet. We will figure it out,’ ” says the 38-year-old mom, a manager at an eye clinic who shares her kids with husband Brian Curtwright.

It turned out that one of Brady’s friends, Gabe Gonzales, had the answer — offering to take the photo with Nora alongside some of Brady’s other pals.

From left: Brady and Nora Curtwright in two of their back-to-school photos.Ashley Curtwright
“We have a group chat, we’re all in it and I just texted it. I was like, ‘Who’s down to take a picture?’ And they were all down,” Gonzales, best friends with Brady since seventh grade, told local TV station KAIT.

On the first day of school, on Aug. 12, Ashley and Nora walked through Nora’s old elementary building, through the double doors toward her new middle school and were “overwhelmed with joy” at what they saw.

“Nora saw family,” Ashley says.

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Twelve of Brady’s friends were there to greet her. She also carried a photo of her big brother for her latest school picture, grinning in the center of the group.

Brady, his mom says, had always tried to show up for his friends and in the months following his death they have been “a part of our lives.”

“Nora lost her brother, but in a way she has gained a much larger family,” Ashley says. “She has so many more brothers who have chosen to keep showing up for her.”

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This day was no different.

“When I saw them, I knew I was going to have a good day and that I knew if I needed anything they would be there with me. I know next year they will be there again,” Nora says. “They are always there.”

“When I look at that picture, I saw love. I see my son,” Ashley says. “I see a future with hope and joy. Not just loss and sadness.”