Kennesaw Family's Wedding Photo Goes Viral

Credit: Brandy Angel Photography

A grieving Kennesaw family was made whole for a brief moment on their wedding day, when they say the spirit of their deceased son joined them for the festivities.

Now, their wedding photographer has created a visual reminder of that special moment.

Lake Bozman, 8, died of acute myeloid leukemia on May 1. Lake’s parents, Anna Bozman and Travis Thompson, got married in October. Anna said on the ”Prayers for Lake Bozman” Facebook page that she could feel Lake’s presence at the event, bringing her happiness for the first time in months. However, posing for wedding photos was especially difficult without Lake there to complete the portrait.

Wedding photographer Brandy Angel, who met the family through her non profit that takes pictures of families with terminally ill children, and friend Paul Woodward used photo manipulation software to digitally add faint images of Lake into some of the wedding photos. The image of Lake “joining” the wedding created a tangible representation of the special day for the happy but heartbroken family.

“THIS is my family. And we will be together again,” Anna Bozman wrote on the Prayers for Lake Bozman page. “I needed this picture more than she or anyone could ever know.”

The photograph has received over 13,000 likes and almost 1,500 shares since it was posted to the Facebook page on Saturday and has been covered by the New York Daily News, Good Housekeeping, and news outlets in Sweden, Hungary, and Germany.

Weeks before his death, Lake signed a one-day contract with the Atlanta Hawks and was allowed to practice with the team thanks to the efforts of Bert’s Big Adventure host Bert Weiss. Lake has originally been scheduled to join other sick children on an all-expense paid trip to Disneyworld in December, but was too ill to make the journey.