Everyone on this Caribbean island understands that the phrase “en María”—in María—refers not to a place, but to a place in time, writes Laura Pérez Sanchezfor National Geographic on the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria: the long, miserable months Puerto Ricans endured during the aftermath of the worst natural disaster to strike the island in modern history.

For Gabriella Báez, a Puerto Rican photographer based in San Juan, the time is a particularly personal one: she lost her father to suicide in the wake of the storm.

Her intimate portraits of storm survivors paired with the treasured possessions of their loved ones (some, pictured above)—wedding rings, bongos, a puzzle piece—weave a story of memory and profound grief.

For 25-year-old Báez, the project was moving. “Oscillating between grief and laughter, connecting with these families and sharing our stories of grief transformed into a place of healing for each other,” she says. Today the visual pairings have evolved into a more personal project on grief: Ojala Nos Encontremos en el Mar, which means: Hopefully, We’ll Find Each Other in the Sea.

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