Senior celebrates dad’s life, graduation

Senior Lauren Offer and her father were inseparable.

But when she was in high school, her father’s health declined. She said he wanted to live long enough to see her and her sister, Lacey, graduate.

Her junior year, he passed away from heart failure.

Offer, a senior biology major, will be graduating in May. While her father can’t physically be there to watch her accept her diploma, she wanted to find a way to incorporate him into this step in her life.

“I have all good memories of my dad,” she said. “He was my everything. He could do no wrong in my eyes.”

Much like many seniors this weekend, Offer took her senior pictures around UNC’s campus on April 2 with her cousin, photographer Luke Thompson. She originally intended to pose with a photograph of her dad in her photo shoot.

But Thompson had a different idea. With a little bit of Photoshop, Offer’s father would be standing next to her once again.

“I’d seen a picture sometime last year of a guy who put this lady and this man in a picture,” Thompson said. “I guess it was a maternity picture and her fiance had died. I saw it and wanted to learn how to do it.”

He posed Offer as if her arm was wrapped around her father. Through Photoshop, he was able to superimpose her father’s image into the picture.

The outcome: a father and daughter together, like the best friends they always were.

Offer said Thompson sent her the edits the night of the championship. The next day, she posted the picture of her and her father on “Overheard at UNC” to raise students’ sprits.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive. One of her favorites in particular was a comment that said “That hit me right in the Tar feels.” Her professor approached her in class the next day to tell her how touching her post was.

Offer’s family is thrilled with the picture. Her mother, Laureen Brown, was thrilled her daughter memorialized her father in such a special way.

“Lauren was a daddy’s girl,” she said. “When she was born, he was working overnight, so he was home with her during the day. That was really great for their bonding, I think.”

Thompson also expressed his love for his uncle.

“He was my favorite uncle,” he said. “He was really my cousin, but I grew up calling him Uncle. That’s how close we were. It was really sad when he passed.”

While Offer said the journey without her father physically being there has been difficult, she still feels his spirit.

“I can hear him in my ear sometimes telling me things like, ‘Yeah, my daughter goes to UNC, and she’s about to graduate!’” she said. “One day I swear I heard him and had to turn around because his voice was so clear in my head.”

Offer said she takes a great deal of comfort in knowing her father is in a better place. She said he always made it clear he wanted her to be happy and successful. Knowing how much pride he had in her has helped her get to where she is today.

Along the way, she hopes that her story has had an impact on others’ lives, as well.

“When you do things, you never know who you could be speaking to or who you could be helping get through the day,” she said.

“For me, that’s one of the biggest rewards.”

@nicola_mcirvine

arts@dailytarheel.com