I wonder if her heart broke all over again.

The loss of a child is surely the greatest hurt and yet, the manner of which it occurs plays a pivotal role on the heart.

I watched my parents grieve their son, a 19 year old boy whose life was snuffed out by cancer and it was so very hard.

What if he had been kidnapped? Raped? Murdered?

There are no words.

Like many, I imagine, Hania’s mother has been so present in my thoughts.

Yesterday, as she buried her thirteen year old daughter.

Today, when she rose in a not so crowded courtroom and got her first glance of the one charged in her death.

Her strength leaves the world breathless.

My husband wondered aloud how one could possibly not physically attack a person who discarded a little girl like a plastic bottle.

I don’t know either, but I think grace has found Cely and she is as loving a mother as you may ever encounter.

Today, she could have stayed warm in her bed and cried a river of tears, but she rose from the ashes for her beautiful daughter, Hania.

It is Hania’s name that we shall remember, her life that was so precious and her family who I believe will make the world a little bit better, just as she did.

Hania. ❤️

(Photo by Andrew Craft)