Nebraska girl honors father who died serving in Afghanistan with touching senior pictures

AURORA, Neb. -- The senior pictures showing a Nebraska high school student honoring her late father are getting a lot of attention online.

Julia Yllescas had her senior pictures taken Saturday. According to KOLN, she then asked the photographer if she could create something to help her "have a piece of him" with her for the rest of her life.

Photographer Susanne Beckmann was more than happy to oblige.

Beckmann is a military wife. So when she learned why Yllescas' father couldn't be in the pictures with her, she knew she had a mission to accomplish.

"I was teary-eyed when I was editing them, all I could think in my head is I don't ever want to have to do this for my own kids," Beckmann said.

Yllescas' father is Army Captain Robert Yllescas. He was injured by an IED in Afghanistan in 2008. The military flew him back to the United States for medical care, but he died months later at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

The two pictures have been a huge hit--both online with people learning the story and with Yllescas.

"Just to have that on my wall and be like no he is with me, even though I can't physically see him," that, Yllescas said, is exactly what she wanted from her senior pictures.