Hannah Is An Angel Now

A friend that I graduated with lost his 22-year old daughter, Hannah, to a senseless murder while she was at Indiana University.  It was the week of the Little 500 and she was celebrating with friends.  They were all graduating in two weeks.  She left her friends around midnight and no one heard from her again.  They found her body the next day.  I will never understand the evil that exists in our world.

The one thing I do know is that God has us in his hands.  It has never been more evident than in watching my former classmate, her father, through Facebook.  The grace and spirit of this man, father, husband and friend is indescribable.  I never met Hannah but she must have been an incredible young woman.  There was no funeral, but rather a celebration of her life.  Her younger sister said she spoke to Hannah about death in one of their many talks together, and Hannah didn't want a funeral.  She wanted people driving up in limousines and laughing and talking about her life.  That is what they did.

I have witnessed her father not give into grief but embrace the wonderful 22 years he had with her.  He has shared many pictures of them together.  They are snapshots of memories he has of his wonderful life with her.  What a testimony of his faith.  I am humbled.  There are no worries or struggles that can match what he has gone through.  I have no reason to do anything but praise, just as he has done.  I only hope to live my life in the way he has exhibited through these difficult times.  God has a beautiful child with him right now and one day another beautiful soul will rejoice when he joins her.

I could not attend Hannah's celebration.  So I made a card as a tribute to her.  Hannah had long black hair. She was a member of Gamma Phi Beta, a sorority whose colors were purple and green.  My goals was to create a representation of a small portion of Hannah in the card.

I purchased a digital image called Clouds of Glory from AmazingPicturesbyMTP from Etsy for the background and used Photoshop Elements to layer an image from The East Wind, also Etsy, called Angel.

The following Copic colors were used on her.

Hair - C9, C7, C5, C3, C1

Skin - E000, E00, E21, E11, E13, E04, R20

Eyes - B37, B34

Wings - C1, BG000, BG0000 Wink of Stella Clear Glitter

Dress - BV08, BV13, BV02, BV00, BV0000, YG25, YG23, YG05

The floral leaves are dies from Shabby Flourish from La-La Land Crafts' April 2015 project kit.  I used seam binding and colored it with distress inks from Tim Holtz.  The flowers, paper and ribbon are from my stock.  The Fly High Hannah text was created in Word.

May God keep us all safe!

Thanks for looking,
Jo