After Christy Hester lost her husband, Richard, in January, there was one thing she was having trouble parting with: his glasses.
"You get rid of some things and hold onto some things, and you don't know why," said Christy. "He...just helped make people happy, he was funny, he was a jokester. He always let me know how much he loved me."
Christy, who lives in Twin Lake on the west side of the state, said she was wondering what to do with the glasses until a post on Pinterest gave her inspiration. She grabbed some acrylic paint, pipe cleaners and a Sharpie and got to work crafting a remembrance ornament — turning her husband's glasses into a snowman for the Christmas tree.
"There were lots of tears, but I think it’s healing," said Christy.
She shared photos of her creation on the community Facebook group Rainbows over Michigan — and what happened next surprised Christy.
"I was kind of blown away by the response," she said after her post went viral. Christy is a teacher and said she went to school the next day and had a question for her students: "I said to the kids, 'am I going viral?'"
The post, which now has more than 22,000 reactions and more than 2,000 shares, seems to have resonated with a lot of people — and the response has meant a lot to Christy as well.
"With every like and every comment, it was like my husband was saying 'I love you'," she said.
