Yes, the poet notices the change in the mother’s face after she was born. This could have been the outcome of sorrowful incidents or hardships in life. Age and ill health also might have made the mother lose the sweetness of her face and smile.

The poet is looking at her mother’s photograph which is indeed an old one. With it she can see how her mother looked when she was a little girl of twelve. The photo shows her on a beach with her two girl cousins who are younger than her, holding her hand.

It might have been windy at that time as their hair was flying on their faces when the uncle took the photograph. All the three smile through their flying hair. Looking at the photograph, the poet says that her mother had a sweet face, but it was a time before the poet was born.

The sea was washing their feet. The poet says that the sea has changed only a little but change has come about the ones whose feet it was washing. After 30 or 40 years, the mother would take out the photograph and take a look at it.

By that time, she was married and had a daughter. She would laugh a little and say “Look at Betty and Dolly, see how they have dressed for the beach”. By now, she can only remember those days. A huge change has come about her and she is no longer that small, innocent girl of twelve. After some years, when the poet’s mother dies, for the poet, her mother’s laughter becomes a thing of the past.

That’s why she says “the sea holiday was her past and mine is her laughter”. In the same way as the mother remembers her old days, the poet can remember her mother. The poem also shows that in due course of time, the two of them learned to live with their losses though the loss had made a permanent impression on their wry faces.