Hannah Helps

Hannah Glass 11/3/2005 – 11/10/2024

On Thursday, November 3rd, 2005 at 1:40 PM Hannah Marie Glass was born to David and Janean Glass. She grew quickly, full of energy, and life. Soon her love for reading, piano, and education became extremely evident. She happily practiced the piano, she tried reading everything in sight, she asked lots of questions, and was confidently determined to go towards whatever goal she placed in front of herself. Around age five, through a variety of Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, and other church meetings, she understood, for herself, how the Bible tells us that a person can know for sure that their sins are forgiven and that they are on their way to heaven. She asked Jesus to forgive her of her sins, based on His death on the cross. He came into her heart and she became a different person. In the following years this crucial decision became the foundation on which she built her life.

As she grew older she began to look further down the road towards her future, both in education and life. She loved to learn, she loved to teach, and she was a naturally gifted leader. As the oldest of four kids, she was the leader, and each had their own unique relationship with her. She was not just a sister, she was their best friend too! At age twelve she began setting her determination on going to college. Her heart was set on attending to Maranatha, and that was an unwavering desire throughout the years. During the majority of her life, she was homeschooled as part of charter school here in the state. This provided the opportunity for her to take responsibility and control of her own education to a large extent. At sixteen she got her driver’s license and a job at the local café in town. She worked hard, getting up early to do school, then went to work, then came home and finished school in the evening. Next she took a job, full-time, at Hobby Lobby, where she became the customer service manager. She continued to do school and actually, was working quite far ahead in her education. She was able to take many duel enrollment classes, summer classes, and winter classes, and by the time she graduated high school, she had already completed the academic qualifications to finish her freshman year and much of her sophomore year as well. As she started this year, her first year, in person, at the place she longed to be for all those years, she began as a second semester sophomore, having enough money between her job, grants, and scholarships, that she found for herself, to pay for all four years of her undergraduate work. As a lover of education, but also people, she chose to major in secondary English education with a minor in teaching English as a second language. Her heart’s desire was to be able to help anyone around the world to be able to understand the English language, and was willing to go wherever the Lord took her in that journey.

On the evening of November 4th, one day after her 19th birthday, Hannah swallowed one bite of a gluten-free brownie that was made with peanut flour. She was not aware of the peanut flour until after she swallowed. An allergic reaction began and a few minutes later she threw up and broke our in a rash. The vomiting lasted a few minutes and Benadryl helped the rash dissipate. As she calmed down, she moved to her room where she laid down on her bed. As she rolled on her side she experienced pain and shortness of breath. As she came down out of her bed, she passed out. (In hindsight, we learned that her lung collapsed at this time.) 911 was called at this point. After she entered the ambulance, her heart stopped for 3-4 minutes. While at the hospital doctors had difficulty raising her blood oxygen level. In time the doctors found that she had the collapsed lung and inserted a chest tube. She was stabilized and transported to a larger hospital. Over the next six days, the damage done to her brain that night, ran its course. As busy as Hannah was in her life, she always was putting other people’s needs before her own. She cared for her family, coworkers, and her “bus kids” at church. With this in mind, and having been told that there was no more that could be done, we made the difficult decision to donate her organs. We did this to help others to have a second chance at life that Hannah did not have, to save other families the pain that we were experiencing, and to honor her life, memory, and love for others. Four lives were saved through this decision, and many more are impacted, both by her donation and her life.

Her life touched thousands and she will forever be missed!