The story Portraits from War all started in February 2004. I went to an antique mall near Cannery Row in Monterey, California looking for something to wear to a WWII Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Dance that was taking place in my small Southern Monterey County town. At the antique mall I found the treasures from another lifetime. My life changed in a moment. Here I recognized my life’s calling and purpose. I found myself on a new and adventurous path that I could not have imagined, even in my wildest dreams. This is the story God wrote for me.

There at the antique mall were the personal effects of Rosabelle Hamann. I found that she was an extraordinary woman who served in the American Red Cross during WWII. Among her belongings were her Red Cross pins, dog tags, photographs, her original obituary she wrote herself, and unbelievably original water color portraits she painted of the soldiers she met and cared for in New Guinea during 1944-45.

I was swept off my feet that day, hearing of this woman’s remarkable life. Rosabelle never married nor had children but left quite a legacy. I knew exactly what to do, as if this were all just waiting for me. I felt called to tell her untold story, honor her memory, and write her back into history.

I arrived at the antique mall about a year after her passing. I knew that very day this was for me. The Lord told me so. Suddenly, I realized I had found what I had been waiting for. I dressed for the dance just as Rosabelle would have, carefully pinning her Red Crosses to each side of my collared white shirt. I then draped the dog tags engraved with her name over my chest.  

Within days of the dance, I began to wonder about the soldiers in the portraits. What had happened to them? Who did they become?
Did they make it home? Would they want to have the portrait? I decided to search for the soldiers Rosabelle painted close to sixty
years ago an ocean away. I had no idea what I would find, I simply set out on faith alone.