🖼️ This teenager is painting memories back to life

🙏 Los Angeles high schooler Hugh Saetia knows more about grief than most 17-year-olds. He was just 6 when his mother died from gastrointestinal cancer, and in the years that followed, a nanny named Marilyn helped care for Hugh and his brother and became something of a second mom to him.

• Then, when Hugh was 14, Marilyn experienced a devastating loss of her own when her son Eddie died. Wanting to do something for her, Hugh turned to one of his favorite pastimes: painting.

He created a portrait of Eddie alongside Marilyn’s granddaughter and gave it to her as a gift. Marilyn cried, hugged Hugh, and told him how much the painting meant to her. The experience made Hugh wonder whether he could do the same for other grieving families.

He eventually founded the Eternal Canvas Foundation, a nonprofit that provides free oil portraits to families who have lost loved ones.

• At first, Hugh approached people at the cemetery where his mother is buried and offered to paint portraits for them. He paid for the canvases, brushes, and paints himself using money he earned helping his dad and brother sharpen knives at a local farmers’ market.

🖌️ Since then, Eternal Canvas has expanded to commission artists from around the world, including some who have experienced significant loss themselves. The nonprofit currently has around 400 active portrait requests.

And Hugh is still painting for Marilyn. He’s working on another piece for her, this time depicting her late husband and sons.

For Hugh, it’s a way to give grieving families something tangible to remember their loved ones by, and he heals a little bit of himself through each creation process.