At one meeting a board member suggested using Hannah’s Christmas Eve photograph in fundraising materials.

Nathaniel refused before she had to answer.

“Her story belongs to her,” he said.

“If she wants to speak publicly, she’ll decide that herself.”

Hannah later thanked him, then corrected his wording in the next draft anyway.

He laughed and made the change.

On the morning the center opened, Ruth brought a small framed photo of Caroline smiling beside a class of young volunteers.

Nathaniel hung it near the entrance but asked that the workshop’s achievements belong to its staff and participants, not to his family’s grief.