The teenage daughter of a fallen U.S. soldier has found the perfect way to make sure her father is always by her side, particularly during life’s most momentous occasions, CNN reported.
Julia Yllescas was just seven years old when her father was killed in Afghanistan. Now starting her last year of high school, she knew she wanted the most important man in her life to be part of one of the greatest milestones of her adolescence. And one photographer was happy to help her out.
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Army Ranger Capt. Robert Yllescas was injured by an IED in Afghanistan back in 2008.
He was taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where just one month later he succumbed to his injuries. He was buried in Osceola, Nebraska.
On Saturday, Julia joined photographer Susanne Beckmann for a senior photo shoot in Aurora, Nebraska.
After posing in various solo shots, the teen sent Beckmann a few pictures of her late father dressed in his uniform taken before her passing.
She asked that the photographer take these pictures and incorporate them into her own portraits, merging the two into an emotional series honoring the fallen father.
The result is an emotional set of photos showing Julia sharing tender moments with her dad.
In the pictures, the elder Yllescas appears angelic next to his daughter, his figure transparent like a faint shadow, but still very much present and at her side.
Julia told KOLN-TV that she wanted an “angel picture” of her and her father.
“And to have a piece of him with me throughout my senior year,” she explained. “Because sometimes it feels like where are you, why did you have to go?”
Beckmann said she was happy to oblige the teen’s special request, though it was definitely an emotional photo shoot.
An active-duty military wife herself who’s also been close to the Yllescas family for years, she said the editing process was spent wiping away many tears.
“All I could think in my head is I don’t ever want to have to do this for my own kids,” she said.
She shared the post to her Facebook page on Tuesday where it quickly went viral, although the page appears to no longer be active at this present time.
Julia said she is grateful for the pictures which she says she’ll now carry with her forever.
Her grief is still very much alive, and sometimes it “hurts and it’s absolutely suffocating”, particularly when she thinks about how many milestones her father has missed in her life by tragically not being present while she grows up.
“Why it has hit my heart so hard is that I almost felt when I saw those pictures that he truly was there,” Julia said. “Just to have that on my wall and be like ‘No, he is with me, even though I can’t physically see him.'”
Julia revealed her dad was a “jokester” who she often wrestled with, though he always let her win.
She told CNN that the two were in the process of building a boat out of popsicle sticks when the older Yllescas got the call to go to Afghanistan. To this day, the boat remains unfinished, but Julia won’t touch it.
“I wouldn’t feel right finishing it without him,” she said.
